Innocent Word's Act II
by Boho Bytch
Summary: 'No-one's died in years'- Four words Oliver Wood wishes he's never heard*FINISHED* Look out for Act III, coming soon...
1. Summer Break In Bonny Scotland

Innocent Words Act II  
  
Author: Captain Cornflake  
  
Chapter One: Summer Break In Bonny Scotland  
  
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-Disclaimer-  
  
I do not own Harry Potter, JK Rowling does. I own Emilia  
  
A/N: I know nothing about Scotland, so if I mess up, don't hurt me, I'm trying my best.  
  
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The flight to Glasgow was uneventful, as expected. Emilia got airsick, namely because she hates flying on an aeroplane.  
  
Upon reaching the Glaswegian airport, Em and Oliver made straight for the coach station that was at the main entrance, and hopped on the coach heading for Skye, which was stopping in Oban, which was not far from where Oliver's parents lived.  
  
The coach was fairly cramped, mainly with families going on their holidays, with children, most of whom were either screaming blue murder, or running up and down the aisle with their frustrated parents chasing them.  
  
"Remind me, never have children." laughed Em, leaning on Oliver's shoulder.  
  
"Dang, I think I'd make a good dad" he replied, his face twisting in mock hurt.  
  
"I'm just kidding, I know you would." she reassured him, resting her head on his shoulder. He threw an arm over her shoulders and caressed her left arm with his fingertips  
  
The three-hour journey tired them both, and, by the time they reached Oban, 'The Gateway To The Isles' as it was known, they were both quite exhausted. It was a pretty seaside town, with views to die for. Problem being, it was a wee bit cold.  
  
Em surveyed the landscape with an admiring expression, taking a deep breath as her gaze passed the harbour.  
  
"Home sweet home" sighed Oliver, looking towards the ferry port, he turned back to Em, "Just a little further.you see that ferry there?"  
  
She squinted her eyes a little, "Yeah.."  
  
"That.." he smiled, "..will take us up Loch Etive, to my house."  
  
"Oliver." she murmured, pulling him closer, "...Do you think your mum and dad are gonna be pissed about me?"  
  
He looked a bit thoughtful for a moment, "No, they shouldn't be, and besides, we're waiting until your old enough remember? Even if they are pissed at me, I don't care, because nothing they say, is going to stop me from marrying you.."  
  
"Oh Oliver" she sighed, wrapping her rapidly numbing arms around him.  
  
"Come on, we better get going before it gets too cold."  
  
"Wait, my trunk."  
  
"Ah, allow me" smiled Oliver, whipped his trusty wand out and coughed to the luggage on the ground, after checking that no one was looking:  
  
"Reducio..."  
  
Within moments, the trunk was small enough to fit in your pocket, and that's exactly what Em did. She wrapped her coat closely to herself, wishing now that she'd worn something more than the jeans and thin t-shirt she'd put on at Heathrow.  
  
The pair reached the ferry, and loaded themselves onto it. Finding a seat wasn't hard, seeing as there were only four other people on the boat, and they were all elderly men and women, touring the Highlands.  
  
Two of them stared slyly at the young couple, looking quickly away if either of them caught they gaze. One of them spoke up suddenly:  
  
"What's a couple of young'uns like yourselves doing at Loch Etive?"  
  
Oliver smiled at the kindly old man, and then down at Em, who was asleep on his shoulder.  
  
"I'm going home to see my parents for a couple of weeks, they're meeting my fiancée here." Oliver said quietly, looking back at Em again.  
  
"Engaged? At your age?" the man sounded shocked.  
  
"Yep." He replied, lifting up Em's left hand to show the man the ring on the fourth finger.  
  
"Keep a hold of her, she's a pretty girl." smiled the man, raising his eyebrows.  
  
"I intend to, no-one's going t'ae take away my Em."  
  
The driver of the ferry announced that they'd be stopping soon, and Oliver shook Em lightly:  
  
"Em, wake up, we're here.."  
  
The slender teen sat up groggily, and rubbed her eyes, before gazing out of the window at the gorgeous views around her. Her eyes went wide and she looked up at Oliver as the ferry began to slow.  
  
"Come on.." he smiled, lifting Em to her feet, before sweeping her up into his arms, she protested and wriggled against his strong grip, but her overcame her, which results in fits of random screaming laughter and half- arsed tickling.  
  
One of the elderly men looked after the pair as they alighted from the boat, and sighed to himself:  
  
"Ah love's young dream.."  
  
Em stood in the gravel which surrounded the small jetty where the ferry stopped, and looked around her, she only stopped when she saw Oliver looking over in the direction of a modest, oh heck, who am I kidding? It one of the biggest houses she'd ever seen. She raised her eyebrows before asking him:  
  
"You.live there?"  
  
"Yep, It hasn't changed a bit, it's been almost two years since I was last up here.come on, they're going to think we're not coming."  
  
The two made their way along a path that cut through some lush woodland, and they came to the gates of the Wood estate.  
  
Oliver opened the creaky gate, and held it open as Em slipped through. She looked up at one of the upper floors and saw a figure dash quickly from one of the windows.  
  
The door opened suddenly, and a short, red haired woman shot from it, and flung her arms around Oliver, causing him to stumble back a little.  
  
"Mum!" he cried, returning the embrace.  
  
A tall, dark haired, proud looking man appeared in the doorway, and stood there, arms folded at his waist. Oliver looked beyond his mother's shoulders, to see the man standing in the doorway; he peeled his mum off him, and looked onwards to the man.  
  
"Dad." he breathed, stealing a lingering gaze at his father, before turning back to Em.  
  
"I'm so glad you're here!" cried Mrs Wood, looking up at her strapping son, ".and who is this?" she asked, looking to Em.  
  
"This is Emilia, a friend of mine" Oliver shot her a wink, before pulling her closer to him.  
  
"Fiona Wood" the woman held out a hand, Em shook it lightly.  
  
Oliver's father had, by this time, walked up to where the group was greeting one another; he towered above them all, only even almost equalled by his son.  
  
"Ian Wood" he greeted the newcomer, shaking her right hand. Em quickly remembered the ring on her other hand and swiftly turned it around so the stone was not visible.  
  
"It's lovely to meet you both.Oliver's told me so much about you."  
  
Ian and Fiona then stood side-by-side and Em began to notice how much Oliver looked like his parents. He stood next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and led her in as his parents invited them inside.  
  
A few hours later, dinner had been prepared, and the pair entered the dining room, which was attached to the kitchen, into the unsuspecting presence of the proud parents.  
  
"So, how's the team doing?" asked Ian, trying to find out what his offspring had been doing for the past two years.  
  
"We're doing just fine, now that we got a new Seeker."  
  
"Would that be you Em?" smiled Fiona, licking her top lip.  
  
"Yeah that's me.." said Em, shyly, tucking some hair behind her ears.  
  
"We won the cup this year dad."  
  
"You did? Well, congratulations son, and well done to you." exclaimed Ian, clapping for a few moments.  
  
"So how's your love life?" asked Fiona, in the way only a mother could.  
  
"Mum!"  
  
"Fiona!"  
  
"Well, actually, there's something I need to tell you on that front.." he grasped Em's hand underneath the table.  
  
"Mm?" Ian, looking curious.  
  
"I uh- I'm, I- I'm engaged"  
  
Fiona and Ian almost choked on the food they were chewing..  
  
A/N: Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuuuun!!! Heh, lemme know what you all think 


	2. Summer Break In Bonny Scotland Part TwoT...

Innocent Words Act II  
  
Author: Captain Cornflake  
  
Chapter Two: Summer Break In Bonny Scotland Part Two  
  
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-Disclaimer-  
  
I do not own Harry Potter, JK Rowling does. I own Emilia  
  
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Fiona and Ian cleared their throats and stared at their son:  
  
"You're engaged? Since when? Who to?" blurted out Fiona, feeling a huge surge of happiness and a bit of anger too.  
  
"Yes, since last month, and to Em here, we've been seeing each for nearly ten months now."  
  
Ian remained silent as Oliver answered his mother's questions.  
  
"Son.I"  
  
"You are happy for me? Right?"  
  
"Yes we're both happy for you, but we're a little shocked, aren't we Fi?"  
  
"Yes we are.but I have one question though. How old are you Em?"  
  
Em, post turning her ring back around, looked up at Fiona, she blushed a little and replied:  
  
"I'm seventeen, eighteen next March."  
  
"And when do you two plan to get, er.hitched?" enquired Ian.  
  
"About this time next year, isn't it?" said Oliver, looking over to Em.  
  
"Something like that, just after I've graduated"  
  
"Well, it's a very big shock to both of us, but congratulations and.welcome to the family."  
  
Em smiled and thanked her in-laws-to-be for their acceptance of her relationship with their son.  
  
Thankfully, they were allowed to stay in the same room, after Fiona found out that they had already slept together.  
  
Em removed her trunk from her pocket and sat watching Oliver change into his t-shirt and shorts nightwear.  
  
He looked at her and she glanced at the tiny trunk on the floor. He figured out what she was hinting at, he reached for his wand on the one of the bedside tables, pointed it at the luggage and said:  
  
"Engorgio"  
  
Within about five seconds, the case was back to its normal size.  
  
"Cheers" mumbled Em, muttering something about 'stupid underage wizadry decree'.  
  
He noticed her frustrated expression as she rifled through her belongings. He smiled and shuffled across the bed, until he was kneeling behind her. He massaged her shoulders lightly, and she relaxed a little.  
  
"Don't worry, they like you."  
  
"Really?" she said in a worried tone.  
  
"Yes, they're a little surprised and all, but they seem to like you"  
  
"Well, that's one weight of my shoulders." she sighed, turning around and kissing him lightly on the lips.  
  
"And what's the other?"  
  
"Meeting my parents."  
  
"Oh come on, they can't be that bad."  
  
"Well, I suppose they're not, I guess"  
  
"Now come on, we both need to get some sleep" he smiled, patting the covers next to him.  
  
She smiled back and preceded to slip her t-shirt, and replace it with a black oversized vest top that had 'Got Sleep?' printed across it in large white letters. She replaced the jeans with a pair of black and white tartan pyjama bottoms.  
  
"Very appropriate." laughed Oliver, as she climbed under the covers.  
  
"Non-intentional I assure you" yawned Em, cuddling up to him, laying her head on his chest.  
  
He tangled his fingers in her hair, and kissed her head, before letting exhaustion overcome him, they both fell asleep, in each other's arms.  
  
The following two weeks flew by, without any slip-ups. Fiona and Em got to know each other; Ian and Oliver did some father-son stuff. Namely, they went fishing, while the women sat watching them on a pair of sun lounger's. To Em's delight, summer weather in Scotland wasn't as bad as she'd expected it to be, it was actually quite warm.  
  
When it came to the time for them to leave, the goodbyes took a long time, to say the least. Fiona wouldn't let go of Oliver, fearing it would be a long time until she would see him again. It would be almost a year before they would see their son again, unless they made it to one of his games.  
  
After making the six-hour journey back to London, Em and Oliver made the relay trip back to Leeds, where Em's parents, Hazel and Oscar lived. They spent the next fortnight at their house, repeating the Scotland performance again. After this, they were to spend most of the remainder of the holidays at the team house, before Em spent the final three days of the holidays at The Weasley's house, like the twins had asked her to.  
  
George had told her a week previously that the house would not be so crowded as usual, seeing as Percy was spending the summer with his dearest Penelope, so his room would be open for her and Katie and Angelina to sleep in, seeing as their mum wouldn't let the girls sleep in the same rooms as the boys.  
  
She smiled at the thought of why, Oliver, for some strange and unknown reason couldn't keep his hands off her, ever since they'd had the house to themselves. Their week and half alone together flew by, a little too quickly one might say.  
  
Oliver flew her over to the burrow, where he'd seen many a summer barbecue. It hadn't changed at all. Fred and George were outside testing some kind of rocket they'd created, which would explode, raining itching powder down on people.  
  
Em shook her head, and stepped out of the car, and was surprised to be greeted by Katie and Angelina, who ran up to her and both hugged her at the same time. They then both greeted Oliver, before the twins came over and said 'hi'.  
  
Oliver muttered something about having to get back to the house and went to leave, but not before Em caught him by the arm, swung him around and said:  
  
"Oi, you're not going anywhere without giving me a kiss." she laughed, before she stood on her toes and kissed him for a few moments, before George parted the two, laughing heartily.  
  
"Alright, alright lovebirds, I like my breakfast where it is thank you."  
  
Oliver swatted at the redhead's ears, but he ducked out of the way, and laughed cheekily.  
  
"Right, I'm off." he announced to the group, hugging Em one more time, before he hopped back into his car and drove a short distance, before taking off into the sky, disappearing as he went.  
  
"Sooo..how was Scotland then?" asked Angelina, throwing an arm over Em's pale, exposed shoulder.  
  
Em sighed, and turned to face her friends, "It was gorgeous, the views were, breathtaking, and Oliver's parents were great too"  
  
"What did they say about.you know?" said Fred, taking Em's trunk in his hands and heading towards the house.  
  
"They were great about it, they were actually quite pleased.which surprised me a lot."  
  
The band of players walked inside the Weasley home, to be greeted by Molly Weasley, mother extraordinaire, Ginny Weasley, the youngest of the seven children. Then Harry appeared, six out of seven Gryffindor Quidditch players were standing in the same room. Greetings were exchanged, as Em was introduced to Molly Weasley and her husband, Arthur. A very eccentric man he was.  
  
The Burrow was a quaint little place, full of little bits of knick-knacks, and other little oddities that seemed to have been there forever.  
  
Katie showed her to the room where she would be sleeping, where she and Angelina had already 'set up camp' as it was, where there was another camp- bed set up for her. It wasn't much, but it was homely. She smiled as Fred down her trunk; she thanked him and began to search for her photos of her holiday in the Highlands.  
  
"Ah, here we are" she exclaimed, pulling the pictures from underneath her broom, which Fred and George practically drooled the Amazon over.  
  
She sat down on her bed and motioned for Katie and Angelina to sit either side of her, so she could show them the views she was talking about. The other two girls spent the next twenty minutes squeaking and gasping at the beautiful views and nice scenery *ahem*.  
  
"You are so lucky." smiled Katie, smoothing out her dirty blonde hair.  
  
"I know," sighed Em, gripping the edges of the photos in her hand.  
  
"You miss him don't you?"  
  
Em stared at the floor and nodded her head.  
  
"He wasn't so lucky was he?"  
  
"No, he wasn't, but there's nothing you can do to change that now."  
  
"I know, but it's still hard."  
  
"Yeah.we understand," said Angelina, putting a hand on Em's shoulder, ".things will get better.they really will"  
  
"Thanks you guys"  
  
A/N: OK, what do y'all think?  
  
-Preview of Chapter three- EXCLUSIVE-  
  
Em woke up suddenly and cried out, causing Katie to jump slightly:  
  
"Whassamatter?" she mumbled  
  
"Nothing, just a bad dream.." 


	3. Final Year

Chapter Three: Final Year  
  
-Disclaimer-  
  
I do NOT own Harry Potter (waaaahhhh, I wish I did!), I own Em  
  
thought, so ner. Ooh and DoNnA owns Elizabeth Ayrton. Oh yeah I do  
  
not own the nightmare sequence from The Two Towers either, Peter  
  
Jackson and co. do.  
  
A/N: Someone suggested camera angles will be included in this  
  
chapter, as that is the way I always envisioned writing this part.  
  
Possible script format.  
  
(.) = Suggested camera shot style.  
  
(Track: Foundations of Stone by Howard Shore, what's written may not  
  
look like it can last over three minutes, but use your imagination.  
  
Ok?)  
  
(In the first few seconds of the track, like in LOTR:TTT, we see  
  
logos drifting in, instead of new line cinema, it  
  
says 'fanfiction.net', then instead of 'Wingnut productions', it  
  
says 'Captain Cornflake Productions' Then, on 0:31, the Innocent  
  
Words logo fades in central, in whatever font you want it to be.  
  
then, about 7 seconds later.)  
  
(We open on drifting images of mountains, green fields and valleys,  
  
then we drift slowly over a lake, and then Hogwarts come into view.  
  
It is mid- afternoon time, we drift slowly around the school, to the  
  
Quidditch field, where we see the maze from the Third Task, and we  
  
pan over the top of the maze, seeing various figures running around  
  
it. A few flashes are seen as we pull back from the maze, slowing as  
  
the camera slows amongst the crowd, then shoots forward, straight  
  
through the maze into a flash of white-light, which is the Cup  
  
(Portkey). We cut to the graveyard scene, with evil greatly present  
  
in the air.)  
  
Voldemort (V.o): Kill the spare.  
  
(We see a massive flash of green light, and hear a thump, as Cedric  
  
is killed, and lies on the ground, looking shocked, eyes wide open.  
  
Harry duels with Voldie, then runs for the cup, grabbing Cedric's  
  
body as he goes, then we see a flash of white light, and then Em  
  
wakes up)  
  
-BACK TO NORMAL STYLE, with some camera shots included-  
  
Em woke up suddenly and cried out, causing Katie to jump slightly:  
  
"Whassamatter?" she mumbled  
  
"Nothing, just a bad dream..."  
  
(EXT.- The Burrow, it is barely dawn, sun's first light is beginning  
  
to creep over the trees, a few stars still linger in the darkened  
  
sky, as it begins to take on a red tinge. Our title fades in,  
  
central, in any font you want to imagine it to be. The title says:  
  
Innocent Words Act II.)  
  
(INT: the burrow, breakfast time, everyone is looking a little  
  
dishellved. An owl crashes into the window suddenly, causing some  
  
people at the table to jump.)  
  
"Oh look," said George, pulling the letters from the tired bird's  
  
beak, "It's our Hogwarts letters, and the girl's have come too."  
  
"McGonagall doesn't miss a thing does she?" smiled Em, taking a bit  
  
from the piece of toast she was holding, "It's kinda creepy that she  
  
knows where we are, it's looking we're being watching."  
  
She did a quick rendition of the Twilight Zone theme tune, which  
  
resulted in a failed attempt to hit her around the head from Katie.  
  
George passed the letters around, and then Molly sent everyone to get  
  
ready, they were off to Diagon Alley, to collect the yearly round of  
  
school equipment.  
  
The girls, as expected took a while to get ready. Em wore an almost  
  
knee length black skirt, a black strapless top, and of course, a thin  
  
black cloak over the top.  
  
Everyone gathered around the fireplace, and they were all sent in, in  
  
turn. Ron went first, then Harry, then Ginny, then Em.  
  
"Diagon Alley" she said, as the green flames gathered up around her.  
  
Fred and George followed her, and lastly, Katie and Angelina went,  
  
followed by Molly and Arthur.  
  
When they all met up again, outside of Flourish and Blotts, they were  
  
given their orders to go and do what they needed, and to meet back  
  
here as soon as they were done.  
  
Em and Katie headed straight for Ollivander's, because Em had  
  
unfortunately snapped her wand a few weeks previously, while showing  
  
it to her mum and dad for some reason.  
  
"Ah, Miss Bell, so lovely to see you again, it's been a while."  
  
smiled the kindly man, his eyes twinkling with a hint of youth in  
  
them. He turned his eyes to Em, and said: "You're that famous  
  
Quidditch player aren't you? Play for Puddlmere United, I believe."  
  
Em blushed furiously; it was the first time she'd been recognised  
  
as 'that famous Quidditch player'.  
  
"Yeah.that's me" she replied, lifting her gaze from the floor.  
  
"So what can I do for you young ladies then?"  
  
Em spent the next hour trying wands out, most of which disagreed with  
  
her violently, one changed her hair a lovely shade of blue, which she  
  
looked at with horror.  
  
Finally, an 11 and ¾ inch Redwood and Dragon Heartstring wand agreed  
  
with her.  
  
"At last." she sighed, paying Mr Ollivander, who had a big soot mark  
  
on his face, from where one of the wands disagreed with Em. After  
  
that, Katie and Em headed for Flourish and Blotts, where they picked  
  
up all their books, and Angelina, Fred and George in the process. The  
  
five teens then headed for Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, where they  
  
treated themselves to a round of chocolate sundaes.  
  
Harry and Hermione soon joined them, and delighted in telling the  
  
tale of how Ron was in Madame Malkin's getting a new set of robes,  
  
and how he fell off the stool, he was standing on. It was quite a  
  
funny story at the time, until Ron appeared, face still blushing  
  
furiously.  
  
"Awwww did 'ickle Ronnikins hurt himself?" laughed Fred, ruffling his  
  
younger brother's hair.  
  
After the group of nine had done what they needed to, Hermione said  
  
goodbye to Harry and Ron and ran to meet her parents, who were taking  
  
her to King's Cross.  
  
The other eight teens, got back to the Burrow, packed up their  
  
things, and bundled themselves into Arthur Weasley's little Ford  
  
Anglia. How ten people managed to get in there I'll never know.  
  
This year, they managed to reach they station with half an hour to  
  
spare. While walking towards the opening in the wall that lead to  
  
Platform 9 and 3/4, Em turned to Harry, smiled and said:  
  
"This is where we first met, remember Harry?"  
  
"Oh yeah, I do, you were really nervous weren't you?" replied the  
  
messy haired, green eyed wizard-in-training.  
  
Em grimaced slightly at the memory of her first day, and then  
  
proceeded to run through the gateway, and on to the platform, God was  
  
it good to be going back.  
  
They all boarded the train, jamming themselves, all eight of them  
  
(excluding Ginny and including Hermione) into one compartment, which  
  
was particularly funny. Malfoy appeared at the door a couple of hours  
  
later, to have his mandatory pre-school go at Harry before they  
  
reached Hogwarts.  
  
"Back again then Potter? Not such a good summer then, seeing as  
  
you're still alive"  
  
Em, who was sitting on the floor, raised an eyebrow as Malfoy's gaze  
  
settled on her.  
  
"Not you again."  
  
"Oh yes, me again Malfoy"  
  
"Little Miss famous Quidditch player, you'll not be so famous once  
  
Slytherin best Gryffindor this year."  
  
"Hey." protested Hermione.  
  
"Shut up mudblood, I wasn't talking to you"  
  
Em lifted herself of the floor, approached Malfoy quickly and slapped  
  
him on the cheek, hard, that would leave a mark. She spoke some  
  
choice words which I can't repeat to him, and he stalked off,  
  
obviously offended.  
  
"Prick." she muttered, sitting herself back down.  
  
"Cheers for that Em" smiled Hermione  
  
"No problem, I can't stand scum like him.what an asshole.."  
  
The rest of the journey passed by uneventfully, except for when a new  
  
student ran by the door, tripped up, picked herself up, and returned  
  
to her compartment, blushing furiously.  
  
Em changed into her school robes, which made her look a lot younger  
  
than she was, she risked a thick layer of lip-gloss in a dark cherry  
  
colour, and she scraped her hair back into a tight ponytail which  
  
began on the top of her head, and hung all the way down her back.  
  
The group of eight alighted the train and went their separate ways to  
  
the carriages which would take them up the school, they all waved to  
  
Hagrid at the far end of the platform, ushering the first years and  
  
the few transfers towards the boats that would take them over to the  
  
castle.  
  
The castle slipped into view as the carriages advanced forward, Em  
  
sighed and gazed at the night sky around them. The other four people  
  
in the carriage stared at her, and looked away, worried that she was  
  
going to have a relapse when they got into the hall.  
  
They ran to the Gryffindor table, at the end where the first years  
  
were going to go, where there was a gap for fifteen to twenty  
  
students. Em looked around and over her shoulders as the first years  
  
filed down the middle of the hall, amongst which, were a few  
  
frightened looking transfers. Em sympathised with them, she'd felt  
  
the same way only one year ago.  
  
This year though, a particularly sour-looking Snape led them through,  
  
and stopped them abruptly at the front, he whipped around and  
  
signalled to McGonagall, who rose from her new seat, central on the  
  
teacher's table.  
  
"Welcome all, to a new year at Hogwarts, especially to our first  
  
years and transfers." she acknowledged a few faces in the crowd, "I  
  
would like to remind you that the third floor corridor is off limits  
  
to all those who do not wish to die a most painful death. Thank you"  
  
Snape unrolled the long piece of parchment in his hands, and looked  
  
at the group of nervous students in front of him, he almost barked:  
  
"When I call out your name, you will come forward to be sorted."  
  
A few of the group gulped slightly, before Snape called out the first  
  
name:  
  
"Milo Brentford"  
  
A tall foreign looking boy stepped up and had the hat placed on his  
  
head. The hat frowned, said a few words, before shouting:  
  
"Ravenclaw!"  
  
The Ravenclaw table erupted into a wave of cheering as the boy hopped  
  
away in their direction, Snape looked back at the list and called out  
  
the next name:  
  
"Elizabeth Aryton..."  
  
The girl from the train made her way up to the front, shaking like a  
  
leaf. Snape put the hat on her head...it oooh'ed and aaaaah'ed for a  
  
few moments, before calling out:  
  
"Gryffindor!"  
  
The Gryffindor table cheered their new housemate as she sat down next  
  
to Em. The new girl turned to her neighbour and almost passed out:  
  
"Ohmigod!" she squealed, "You're Em Stewart aren't you?"  
  
Em was slightly taken aback: "Yes I am..."  
  
"Oh my god, can i have your autograph?"  
  
"Uh yeah...sure." replied Em, still a little freaked out. Harry  
  
handed her a pen and smiled:  
  
"Ah the perks of being a celebrity..."  
  
Em rolled her eyes and signed Elizabeths shirt..then she looked  
  
around the hall at the other tables, at the Ravenclaw table, all the  
  
students were quietly digging into the feast, at Slytherin, there was  
  
Malfoy giving her a filthy look, she could only just make out a hand  
  
mark on his face from where she'd slapped him.  
  
Then she glanced to the Hufflepuff table, his seat had been kept  
  
empty....it stood as a painful reminder that he was gone.  
  
"hey..." cooed Angelina, "you knew it was going to be hard coming  
  
back.."  
  
"I still didn't expect it to be this hard"  
  
*****  
  
The first few weeks of school passed incredibly quickly, and the  
  
first Quidditch game of the year came around, Gryffindor vs  
  
Hufflepuff. Em played, much against Harry's wishes, she made some  
  
fantastic saves, but there were some shots she just couldn't stop.  
  
Harry caught the Snitch in near record time, even for  
  
him...Gryffindor won easily and got their year off to a flying start. 


	4. Too Late

Innocent Words Act II  
  
Author: Captain Cornflake  
  
Chapter Four: Too Late  
  
-Disclaimer-  
  
I do NOT own Harry Potter (waaaahhhh, I wish I did!), I own Em thought, so ner.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------  
  
Months were passing into the new school year, and after the Hufflepuff game, the Gryffindor team were on a high, they went on to win their game against Ravenclaw, the week before Christmas.  
  
Christmas came and went, very quickly, and with great celebration from all the students. New Year came the week after, which Em spent with Oliver, celebrating their first year together, as a proper couple.  
  
They had almost everything arranged for the wedding by early April, seeing as Em had her NEWTS coming up soon, and she would not have time to organise anything at all. She had asked Angelina, Alicia and Katie to be bridesmaids, and Oliver had asked Ian to be his best man.  
  
The saddest thing that happened in the past few months was that Oliver's dad, Ian, had been diagnosed with lung cancer, and had been given only a 45% chance of survival.Oliver was distraught when he found out.  
  
Em was upset too, but she did have one reason to be remotely happy, she had a sneaking suspicion that, thanks to a certain fumble in the dark on New Years eve', that she might be pregnant.  
  
She brought her head out of the toilet in the bathroom again, for about the seventeenth time in the past three weeks, she was almost certain now. She had to tell him.and fast.  
  
~Oliver's POV~  
  
I was ready to kill myself when I found out that my dad had lung cancer, and that there was a good chance he wouldn't live to see me and Em get married. I was doing something I hadn't done in a long time, I was praying, I was praying to God for my dad's recovery.  
  
Obviously prayers go unanswered in this world, as on the thirteenth of April, I received a frantic letter from my mum, telling me that I had to come home, and fast, dad's condition had gone rapidly downhill, and things were not looking good.  
  
I hastily threw some clothes into a bag, told the guys what was happening, and asked Ian to give me a ride to King's Cross, where I could get a train up home. I never gave a second thought to Em at that point..  
  
-Normal POV-  
  
Em rushed to ask Professor McGonagall if she could leave school for a few hours on urgent family business, the startled teacher agreed, but on the grounds that, when she returned, she gave a damn good reason why she'd had to leave so quickly.  
  
Em agreed, and bolted back to the Gryffindor tower, grabbed her broom, and rode to the team house, where she rapped frantically on the door. She was greeted by Will, who proceeded to tell her that Oliver had left for Scotland a while ago and that his dad was seriously ill.  
  
She clasped a hand over mouth and fell against the doorframe, breathless and attempting to catch her breath again. She pushed some hair from her face irately, and asked any of the guys if they could get her there. Ben offered to apparate her there, and she reluctantly agreed.  
  
They appeared just away from the bustling crowds, amongst which Em ran, trying desperately to find her fiancée before it was too late. She reached the board that showed the departure times for all the trains in the station. She scanned as quickly as she could, Will caught up with her in the meantime, and stood behind her, scanning the board too.  
  
"There. Platform Six" he pointed at the board soon, Em dashed away in search of said platform.  
  
She reached the bridge that went over a couple of the platforms, and stopped, she scanned the surrounding area, searching frantically for Oliver before he got on a train.  
  
She bolted towards the platform, where she saw Ian standing. He looked around when he heard pounding footsteps coming his way, he was surprised to see Em running towards him, her eyes aflame with determination and fear.  
  
"Ian." she panted, "Where's Oliver? There's something I need to tell him."  
  
"He's on the train now, I don't know which compartment he got into."  
  
Em sank to the floor, panting, and clutching her head. Will trotted up behind them, and held his side and bent over slightly, catching his breath.  
  
"Have we caught him?" he said to Em, looking down at the breathless heap on the floor.  
  
"No.he's gone," she whispered, looking at the hard, cold floor beneath her in disbelief.  
  
"Damn" was the reply she got.  
  
"What's the big rush?" asked a confused Ian.  
  
"There's something I really need to tell Oliver, but now I can't"  
  
"Can't you owl him?"  
  
"No, this is something I have to tell him in person."  
  
"What?"  
  
Em blinked a few times, before lifting herself up off the floor, brushing herself down, looking at Ian and Will's concerned face. They thought something was seriously wrong.  
  
"You're not ill as well are you?"  
  
"No Ian, I'm not ill." she looked at the floor, Will layed a hand on her shoulder, ".I'm four months pregnant"  
  
Their faces dropped, their eyes filled with shock, Ian let out a gasp of surprise, and his eyes fell down to Em's middle, which, underneath the coat she was wearing, you couldn't tell she was pregnant.  
  
-Oliver's POV-  
  
I sat myself down on the train, not daring to look up at any of the many muggles around me, for fear that one of them would ask me why I looked so upset.  
  
I looked out of the window as I waited for the carriage to start moving, and there was Ian, hands in his pockets, waiting for me to leave so he knew I got away all right.  
  
Next thing I knew, Em shot down on the platform, spoke a few words to Ian, he said something back to her, and she collapsed to the floor, clutching her head.  
  
Will came up behind them, there was some conversation, and Em lifted herself from the floor, brushed her clothes, looked at Ian, said something, then their faces dropped. I banged on the window and called her name, but she didn't hear me. Then the train started to move, I lost my chance to say goodbye to her. Damn!  
  
I sat back in my seat, ran a hand through my hair, and tried to turn my thoughts to what would happen when I got home.  
  
-Normal POV-  
  
Ian and Will, post calming Em down with a steaming cup of tea in a little café in the station, took her back to the house and explained to the rest of the guys what had happened, Em begged none of them to tell Oliver why she'd wanted to see him, they reluctantly agreed. Sam took her back to school.  
  
The first person she was greeted by was Professor Snape, he gave the second most famous Gryffindor a bitter stare, before asking her sharply where exactly she had been, and when Em didn't reply straight away, he took five points from Gryffindor.  
  
"Sir, I had urgent family business."  
  
"A likely story..back to your tower Miss Stewart, before I take more points from your house"  
  
Em' turned and walked back to the Gryffindor tower, seething, her fists and teeth were clenched tightly together.  
  
She reached the common room, where she found Alicia and Harry discussing tactics for the following days game against Slytherin. She sat down heavily near the fire, and complained loudly about how Snape is a top class asshole.  
  
Harry paused, noticed her disgruntled expression, stopped discussing passes with Alicia and asked what was wrong. Em's eyes settled on his concerned face for a few moments before saying anything:  
  
"Ian's dying." she whispered, in a tone that felt like he was already dead.  
  
"Oh Em, I'm sorry" cooed Alicia, sympathising with her friend.  
  
"Cheers mate, but there's nothing to do now, it's just a matter of time," she paused, "so.this game tomorrow, is there anything I need to worry about?"  
  
Harry smiled when she changed the subject.  
  
"Only a couple of things." he started, ".Malfoy's been made captain this year, so that promises to be fun." he ran hand through his hair, frustrated that his arch-nemesis had another domain in which to spill their hatred for each other.  
  
"Anything else?"  
  
"Yeah, Marcus Flint, the ex-captain, his little brother, Damien, a second year, is playing Beater for them, and the Flint's have a certain habit of hating Gryffindor keepers, particularly when they're engaged to former Gryffindor keepers." he raised an eyebrow in the direction of Em's engagement ring.  
  
"So.it's just a case of avoiding the little git"  
  
"Exactly.."  
  
-Oliver's POV-  
  
The journey home seemed to last all the longer when you've got something on your mind, so by the time I got home, I was frantic, desperate to see dad.  
  
Mum greeted me of course, with her mandatory hug, but filled with sorrow and fear. My grandma Wood was there, she was seventy-eight years old at the time, and she was watching her only son die, slowly.  
  
I went in to my dad's room, with a great reluctance, and I was horrified at what I saw. He was a shell of the proud and strong man I had always known, he had become weak and frail, the jaws of death snapping greedily at his heels.  
  
"Dad" I said softly.  
  
"Hey" was his reply, which sounded more like the croaking of a frog, "Look son, I."  
  
"Dad, ssshhh, you need to keep your strength up..."  
  
"No, I need to say this."  
  
I could feel my eyes filling up with tears.  
  
"I'm proud of you, you're living your life-long dream, you've got yourself a great fiancée, and someday, I'm sure, you'll be a brilliant father too."  
  
"Just like you then."  
  
"Maybes not so much like me." he joked, coughing a little, "Can I tell you a secret?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"I'm not scared.I know my time is coming, and I'm prepared for that."  
  
I subconsciously let a tear slide down my face at that point, He was talking like he only had few hours to live.little did I know that he was actually right..  
  
A/N: Well? Whaddya think? R&r if you want more. 


	5. Slytherin vs Gryffindor

Innocent Words Act II  
  
Author: Captain Cornflake  
  
Chapter Five: Slytherin vs. Gryffindor  
  
-Disclaimer-  
  
See Previous Chapter.  
  
The morning of the 14th of April 1996 came around far too fast for any of the Gryffindor teams liking, but they weren't worried, they had themselves well prepared for the game, be it Slytherin with Malfoy as captain or not.  
  
The four players who slept in the same dorm room awoke within the space of half an hour. They proceeded to mentally prepare themselves and each other, reassuring one another that the game would go well and that they would win.  
  
Harry appeared at the door with the twins behind him and explained that it was time to go to the field; the match was starting in fifteen minutes. Em pulled the strings on the collar of her robes slightly tighter, glanced down at the floor and swept past Harry. He noticed her worried expression, and called after her.  
  
"Hey, we'll be alright you know.we've got some good players, all Slytherin have is seven cheaters."  
  
Em laughed and shook her ponytail around her face, before wandering off to find the twins, they were standing outside the Gryffindor common room, waiting for the girls and Harry.  
  
"You guys nervous?"  
  
Fred looked at her absent-mindedly, and gave a shrug of his shoulders, just as the Slytherin team sauntered past them, Malfoy gave Em a little push, with made her land on George, she turned around and tried to go after him and do him some serious damage. Fred held her back.  
  
"Just leave him, he's not worth it"  
  
At that moment, Harry and the girls appeared, looking a little more confident with themselves.  
  
"Harry, watch out for Malfoy, he's looking for trouble."  
  
Harry nodded and led the time in the direction of the field, where cheers and shouts could be heard, numerous boos could be heard as well, namely aimed at the Gryffindor's from the Slytherins.  
Em felt like she was going to throw up as Harry gave them a pep talk on the edge of the field. They flew out, greeted by the entire Gryffindor house, a few Hufflepuff's who hated Slytherin just as much as their scarlet and gold clad opponents did. A small group of Ravenclaw's were present too, most of them cheering on Gryffindor. But the strongest presence of course, was the Gryffindor crowd, almost roaring like lions.  
  
Lee Jordan, as always was doing he honours on the commentary front, with Professor McGonagall watching him like a hawk, but she knew in her heart of heart she wasn't going to stop him speaking the truth (almost) about the game in hand.  
  
Madam Hooch wasn't refereeing today, seeing as she was the head of Gryffindor house, so, in her place, was Professor Flitwick, who was a surprisingly good flyer.  
  
The tiny charms teacher booted the chest that contained the Bludger, Quaffle and Snitch. The Snitch flew near Em's head, she was so tempted just to catch it there and then, but she remembered her place on this team was to defend the goals and nothing more.  
  
Damian Flint, according to Harry, looked and acted like his older brother, in the words like a stuck-up, evil prat.  
  
The game began seconds later, and even shot into action, which meant the Gryffindor team did as they were supposed to do, and the Slytherin team went into full-on cheating mode, as per usual.  
  
The Beaters were randomly hitting the Bludgers at players, even when they weren't anywhere near the Quaffle. Gryffindor claimed foul, and thankfully they were awarded a couple of penalties, which Katie and Alicia scored with no problems what so ever. Em managed a few good saves, but the Slytherin Chasers managed to put a few past her.  
  
Malfoy was having his usual digs at Harry, as they tracked, and then lost track of the Snitch. By this point, it was raining quite heavily, and all of the players were soaked through.  
  
Em was hovering around the hoops, weaving in and out of them, when a slight wave of feeling echoed through her lower torso. Her eyes went wide, and she glanced down over at her rain-soaked form, before she heard Harry shouting:  
  
"Em, look out!"  
  
Em looked up, she saw the Bludger coming, the Beater behind it, Damian Flint. The ball hit her square in the stomach, knocked her backwards through the hoop she was in front of, and sent her spiralling towards the ground. Harry zoomed away after her, only just catching her in time before she hit the ground. He layed her head down gently, and flew back onto the field, enraged.  
  
The game ended half an hour later, with score finishing at 290-200, Gryffindor's way.  
  
Harry visited the hospital wing straight after, where Em sat up, still a little dazed, but conscious non the less, George had been taken out by Flint as well, but he'd been perfectly fine for a while.  
  
"Hey Em, how are you?"  
  
At that moment, Madam Pomfrey appeared, looking a little annoyed and ready to give someone a good telling off.  
  
"Mr Potter, I'm surprised at you, how could you let this girl play such a dangerous game in her state."  
  
Em shot the witch a piercing glare as if to say 'oh thank you VERY much'. Harry put his head on one side, looked very confused and said:  
  
"What?"  
  
"Miss Stewart, you didn't tell him?"  
  
"No, I haven't, I didn't intend to, until now" she growled the last word, shooting the nurse a dirty look.  
  
"Em, what's going on?" asked Harry, with a quizzical expression.  
  
"Harry, I- I shouldn't have played today."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Because.because, because I'm four months pregnant"  
  
Harry face dropped, his mouth fell open, and he almost refused to take it in:  
  
"You.you.you're what?"  
  
"Im.four.months.pregnant" she said each word separately to make it that little bit clearer.  
  
"Oh my god" he sighed, running a hand, through his hair, " Em, what were you thinking, you could have seriously hurt yourself, or even worse, you could have been killed.  
  
A pair of eyes watched them from the darkened doorway; they glinted a little as a thought crossed the sinister mind: 'Oh, that can be arranged.' they muttered, fingering the chain around their neck.  
  
A couple of hours later, Em left the Hospital Wing, alone, and made her way in the direction of the Gryffindor common room, where she figured she could apologise to the team as a whole for not telling them earlier.  
  
She passed by an empty classroom on her way. As she passed it, a hand reached out from the dark and grabbed her arm. She spun around, to face the person, but they were shrouded in darkness.  
  
"Who are you?" she squeaked, her full voice not being available to her.  
  
"Only I need to know that." whispered a voice, speaking in a seductive tone. The hand that grabbed Em's arm ventured out a little further, and the full arm slipped around her waist. She was too frightened to move  
  
"Ah, brave Gryffindors, so daring, so strong yet so weak." purred the voice, grinning in the dark.  
  
"What do you want with me?  
  
"One down, the rest shall fall soon"  
  
The figured pulled Em into the dark classroom roughly, one candle sat on a desk, it was almost out.  
  
The person stood right at the front of the room, looking a lot like the Grim Reaper, they threw back their hood and Em cried out:  
  
"You?"  
  
A/N: dun dun duuuuunnnnnnnn!!! Well? Whaddya think? Oh yeah, a Harry plushie to anyone who get who the mystery person is.  
  
Chapter Six Preview: Exclusive  
  
"The world doesn't need another hero.."  
  
He wrapped his long fingers around her hair.he pulled his head closer to his hand and inhaled deeply  
  
"Shame.." he almost purred, "You'd have made a good.."  
  
A/N: DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNNNN bwah ha ha ha ha ha ..left you all wondering yet? 


	6. Sabotage Part One

Innocent Words Act II  
  
Chapter Six: Sabotage Part One  
  
-Disclaimer-  
  
I do NOT own Harry Potter (waaaahhhh, I wish I did!), I own Em thought, so ner.  
  
A/N: Well, sorry to all who tried to guess who the bad guy was, it isn't Malfoy, and it isn't Voldie, and it definitely isn't Oliver.. he's in Scotland with his sick dad remember? So, I hate to say it, but no Harry plushies to hand out, oh well, plenty for me.*hugs said plushies*  
  
Em gazed into the cold and heartless eyes that bore down into her soul, disbelieving that was happening.  
  
"What's going on? Why am I here?"  
  
Snape spun on his heels and lit another candle, leaving Em cowering in fear and shock on the floor.  
  
"You're just part of a big plan Stewart."  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
The teacher remained standing, arms folded, eyes aflame with some strange lunacy.  
  
"Sir? Are you alright?"  
  
"I'm on a mission, a journey almost to take out my enemies"  
  
Em's face was still wrought in confusion and thought, as the out-of- character professor advanced on her. She backed away, now on her feet, into a desk, which she held onto for dear life, too afraid to run for it..  
  
He put one hand either side of her tightened fingers on the table and twisted his thin and bony fingers into the wood.  
  
He sneered at her in the dark, and said, in a cruel and ominous tone:  
  
"The world doesn't need another hero."  
  
~* Meanwhile, In the Gryffindor Common Room*~  
  
Harry sat back, and groaned to himself.'Where was she?' She really did have some explaining to do. He looked around the room, looking for someone to go on a search for her. Then he spotted Elizabeth, the Quidditch-mad sixth year.  
  
"Hey Elizabeth, go and have a look for Em for me would you?"  
  
Elizabeth grumbled to herself as she left the common room and headed in the general direction of the hospital wing, hoping to find Em along the way.  
  
A slight groan of wood in a classroom near the Infirmary caused her to jump slightly. Her curiosity got the better of her, she went to investigate.  
  
The door of the room was slightly ajar, to Elizabeth's advantage; she put her eyes to the crack between the door and the frame. She stifled a gasp as what she was seeing hit home.  
  
Professor Snape had Em pinned up against one of the desks, and she looked frightened.  
  
Elizabeth let her gut instinct take over; she ran as fast her legs could carry her, back to the common room.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
"Why me Professor?"  
  
"I'm not taking you out systematically, you're all just going in order of how you come to me."  
  
"This is sick." Em muttered, trying to break away.  
  
Snape tightened his arms and left her with no way to go, nowhere to run.  
  
He ran his thin fingers through her hair, causing her to start shaking violently. He wound a few of the silky strands around his fingers; he drew his head closer to fingers and inhaled deeply.  
  
"Shame." he almost purred, "You'd have made a good Slytherin"  
  
"NO! You're wrong!!" she screamed, ducking under his arms and heading for the door. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her back towards him. She struggled against his grip, which was remarkably strong for such thin hands.  
  
"You're not going to get away with this." she cried, almost at the door.  
  
Em turned around slowly, expecting to see his wand drawn, about to cast the killing curse on her, but instead he had his right hand to his collar, and was pulling something from underneath it.  
  
"I'm not going to let you go running your mouth off about this."  
  
Fear gripped her again, causing her to almost seize up completely.  
  
She put her hands out in front of her in a defensive stance, ready to try and fight him if needs be.  
  
Snape pulled out a shiny gold pendant on a long, thin chain.he passed it between his fingers and glanced evilly at Em.  
  
She stepped back and let a breath escape, it echoed around the room, bouncing off all four walls.  
  
He opened the pendant before saying, in as cruel a tone as possible:  
  
"Sweet dreams."  
  
Em gasped, unable to scream, froze and knew no more.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
"Harry, Harry come quick" Elizabeth shouted ahead of her as she ran back into the common room.  
  
Harry jumped up, startled by all the shouting.  
  
"What's the matter? What's going on?"  
  
"Em..she's." puffed Elizabeth.  
  
"Ok, calm down, and tell me what's wrong."  
  
"Em's in trouble, Snape, he's, he's got her, in a room" she said, still catching her breath.  
  
Harry knew instantly that something was terribly wrong.  
  
"Ron, Hermione, Elizabeth, let's go"  
  
The four teens left the room quickly, and let Elizabeth lead the way.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  
  
Snape stared coldly at the body on the floor, the open brown eyes, the deathly pale skin.  
  
He felt no pang of guilt for the pain he was causing to anyone. Instead, he felt triumphant.  
  
The sound of pounding footsteps reached his ears then. He drew his hood back and shrank back into the shadows.  
  
Harry and co. stopped when Elizabeth pointed silently to the room where Snape was.  
  
Harry, being the bold, brave and fearless hero that he was, signalled for the others to stay where they were, he would go in and investigate.  
  
He pushed gingerly at the door, with his wand drawn, ready to duel.  
  
The door stopped moving suddenly, as if blocked by a heavy object. Harry squeezed his head around the door and looked down to see what was blocking his way. His face dropped when he saw Em's frozen body lying there.  
  
He snaked his arm through the gap and levitated the body that blocked his way, he noted that she didn't move an inch, twitch or anything.  
  
He lowered her down to the floor and slipped inside. Upon closing the door behind him, he surveyed the room before dropping to his knees.  
  
He laid a hand on her cheek, then to her heart, he could barely tell if she was alive or not, but if she was, she was in a bad way.  
  
Harry stood to his feet and called out into the darkness:  
  
"Come on out Snape, I know you're there.."  
  
Harry didn't hear him mutter the spell in the shadows, but the next thing he knew was that the door had been deadlocked and the 'Alohamora' charm wasn't working one bit.  
  
Ron, Hermione and Elizabeth were throwing their weight up against it, but to no avail, the door would not budge.  
  
"Potter." said Snape, in his usual drawl.  
  
"Professor, What are you doing? What's going on?"  
  
"You're next Potter." he muttered, stepping forward from the shadow.  
  
Harry pointed his wand squarely at his Snape's chest, ready to do something terrible if needed.  
  
'Lacarnum Inflamare' he whispered, setting a desk behind him alight.  
  
Harry ducked back as a flame jumped up and threatened to singe his face.  
  
"Like I said to her." he pointed to the unconscious body on the floor, ".the world doesn't need another hero." 


	7. Sabotage Part Two Tragedy

Innocent Words Act II

Author: Captain Cornflake

Chapter Seven: Sabotage Part Two / Tragedy

-Disclaimer-

I do NOT own Harry Potter (waaaahhhh, I wish I did!), I own Em thought, so ner.

A/N: To the person who reviewed chapter six, cheers, and what's up with Snape you ask? He got pissed off at being one of the good guys, and Em is not destined be another Harry, it's just the whole Gryffindor bravery/hero thing…

Harry stepped back as the flames climbed up the walls around him. He regained his composure, looked at the sinister expression on Snape's face, waved his wand in the professor's direction and shouted: 'Petrificus Totalus'.

Snape fell to the floor, frozen, his arms tightly at his side.

The flames that were travelling the room reached the rows of wooden desks that were inside, causing the temperature to skyrocket. Funnily enough, the door was not crumbling under the intense heat pressure on it.

Harry coughed and spluttered as the smoke in the air reached his lungs.

He tried with all his strength to open to door, but the handle was too hot for him to hold, it was so well locked that he couldn't even prise it open. He was trapped.

Ron, Hermione and Elizabeth were shouting of him at the top of their lungs, he heard them and he yelled back:

"Get outside, get near the window, I have an idea"

By now, news of the fire had reached McGonagall, the teacher panicked, but remained calm enough to order that everyone was to remain in their respective towers.

Ron, Hermione and Elizabeth arrived at the outside window where Harry had instructed them to go. They saw a shadow rise up at the window, it looked like a head.

Inside the room, Harry had cleverly transfigured an untouched desk into a ladder.

He rested it up against the high window ledge and climbed each run as quickly as possible. He reached the window and could see; or rather just make out the forms on Ron, Hermione and Elizabeth. The window was stuck tight shut. He coughed and put a hand to his mouth.

'Oh Shit' thought Harry, '…this is it' thinking he was going to die.

Then a new bolt of hope surged through him, he gained a new strength. He threw his elbow at the window; smashing it into hundreds of piece, he made sure it was big enough to fit a person through before scaling the ladder down to the floor.

He ran to Em's body and put her over his shoulder, hanging on as tightly as he could to her right arm, while climbing the ladder with his left hand.

Ron breathed a sigh of relief as Harry re-appeared at the window with Em on his shoulder. The redhead stepped forward and beckoned for his friend to pass his teammate down.

Harry did just that, he tossed Em down to Ron, who staggered back and fell flat on his behind, still hanging on to the body in his arms. 

Ron rolled Em over so she was on her back, he looked at her face, he'd seen that expression before. He glanced sadly at Hermione before turning back to the window.

"Harry! Come on, jump!"

The teen wizard glanced down at the other stiffened body on the floor, he felt obliged, even thought he hated the man with a passion, there was a feeling deep down that he should save him. He climbed back down a couple of rungs.

"Harry no!" shouted Hermione.

He hadn't got even steps down when he felt a rising heat on the lower part of his legs. Glancing down over, he bolted back up the ladder, muttering 'shit, shit, shit' as he went. 

A rafter crashed down to the floor suddenly, causing everyone outside to step back.

'Come on Harry, jump!" yelled Elizabeth, stretching out her arms to catch him.

He launched himself from the ledge then, seconds before the window shattered into hundred of pieces, showering all below in glass.

Flames and smoke poured out of the open gap in the wall, and licked skyward. Thankfully there were no rooms directly above that one, so there was no immediately danger to the rest of the castle.

Professor McGonagall arrived outside the door accompanied by a few other teachers; she broke the deadlock on the door and jumped inside casting spells to put out the flames. 

Outside, the four conscious teens gazed at what used to be a History of Magic room. 

A piece of brickwork began to crack suddenly; it crumbled and took a good portion of the entire wall with it.

When the dust subsided, they expected to be beaten back by massive flames, but they weren't. The flames were all but out, save a few tiny flickers.

McGonagall stepped back and looked around, what has possessed someone to do this?

She spotted the five dust-covered form outside and rushed out to see if they were ok.

"Mr Weasley, Miss Granger, Miss Aryton" she said breathlessly, '…and Mr Potter, what are you doing here?"

"Saving our friend" replied Ron, pointing to Em.

"Oh my" gasped the head.

"Minerva, you'd best come see this" called one of the teachers inside the charred shell of a room.

She stepped over the piles of rubble and stifled a scream of terror at what she saw.

A heavily scorched, blackened, almost beyond recognisable corpse, frozen in time.

"Severus" she dropped to her knees and looked over the body. "He's dead," she said to herself.

Back outside, she spoke to the group:

"What happened here?"

"Professor," piped up Harry, "Snape was not himself, he was slightly mad you might say. He tried to kill Emilia and myself."

McGonagall sighed, the reality of the situation hitting her.

"She has been petrified, but how?"

"I think this might explain that professor" said Flitwick, handing her the shiny gold pendant he'd found on the floor.

"Oh my, how in the name of Merlin did he get this?"

"What is it professor?" asked Hermione, shuddering at the mention of petrification.

"This, Miss Granger, is a very rare, one-of-a kind pendant, behind as sheet of glass lies the glare of a basilisk."

The faces of the students dropped. This was bad.

Madam Pomfrey appeared then and took the five teens away to the hospital wing.

A couple of hours later, Harry had been treated for a few broken ribs; smoke inhalation and a few cuts from the broken glass.  Hermione, Ron and Elizabeth were treated for smoke and dust inhalation a few cuts and bruises, and the such like.

Hermione Seemed troubled, she stared long and hard and Em's frozen face. She glanced at Ron and said:

"So this is how you felt…"

"Yes, it's not nice" sighed Ron, laying a hand on her shoulder.

"Someone…needs to tell Oliver" groaned Harry, sitting up.

"I'll take care of that…you should all get some sleep now, I know it's hard, but you should try." said McGonagall, sweeping into the room.

The others nodded and lay down in bed, contemplating what had gone on in the past few hours.

It was almost one in the morning when the headmistress sat down in her office to write to the ex-Gryffindor Quidditch captain, delivering the bad news.

An hour later, a tawny owl flew away into the night sky, off to Scotland.

**Meanwhile, In Loch Etive.**

Back in the Wood estate, a tired, exhausted and grief stricken Oliver left the room where his now dead father lay.

He rested up against the wall and slid down it, his shoulders heaving with tears that had been held behind a wall of strength of pride and strength.

Fiona's tear-stained face appeared then, and she laid a supportive hand on her son's shoulder.

He looked up at her with heavily reddened eyes, he gulped back the lump that was in his throat and choked out the words.

"This is gonna hurt Em"

The older woman smiled slightly at the thought of her daughter-in-law-to-be:

"She'll be ok, she's a strong girl"

"Yeah, I guess you're right"

Oliver rested his forehead on his knees, before out of the corner of his eye he saw some movement. He jerked his head up, just in time to see a tawny owl land on the windowsill. It was sunrise, so the bird appeared to be glowing.

He opened the window tentatively, unsure of the content of the letter. God only knows why, but he had a gut feeling that it was bad news.

When he saw the Hogwarts stamp on the back, he tore open the envelope and pulled out the parchment inside, thoroughly panicked.

His eyes jumped all over the page before settling on the first line:

Dear Mr Wood,

I regret to inform you that your fiancée has been involved in a serious accident.

Before I continue, I must assure you that she is very much alive, but unfortunately she has been petrified.

I realise this will be upsetting for you, but rest assured that she is in good hands.

However, there is another matter connected with this accident that I need to speak with you about, urgently.

Yours Truly,  

Minerva McGonagall

(Headmistress)

Oliver dropped the letter and backed away from the window, putting a hand to his mouth in disbelief.

"What is it?" asked Fiona, as her son backed into her.

"It's Em, she's been…she's been...she's been petrified…"

"Oh my…" she exclaimed, looking at the letter on the floor,  "Go to her, she needs you.."

"But…but…but…what about you and grandma?"

"We'll be fine, your fiancée needs you, go"

"But…"

"No buts…go"

"Ok" said Oliver, uneasy about leaving his mum at such a time.

A couple of hours later, he left the house, jumped into his car and flew away into the night sky. Southwards, towards Hogwarts.

At noon that day, he landed roughly and hard on the lawn outside, he jumped out and rushed inside.

The first person he met was McGonagall, her hands were folded and her expression worried.

"Wood" she said, still referring to him only by his last name, "Come with me…"

She led him trough the maze of corridors towards the hospital wing, in total silence.

"In here…" she said, leading to the far end of the room.

"Oh god…" he sat down on the edge of the bed and ran fingers over his cheek. "Professor, what was the other thing you needed to speak to me about?"

"Yes, um, this is going to be another upset to you. Your fiancée was pregnant, but she has regrettably suffered a miscarriage."

Oliver's face went a deathly shade of white, his jaw dropped and his eyes filled up with more tears.

"I didn't know, she never told me"

"Oh, I'm so sorry" said McGonagall, in a sympathetic tone.

"Can I just, get a minute here?"

"Yes of course…I'll tell the others to stay away for a while, to mind their own business"

"Thanks" he waited until she'd left before he spoke to Em:

"Em, look, I know you can't hear me right now, but I'm going to say this anyway. 

I love you.

I know you know that anyway, but I just though I should tell you.

Oh God, please don't die, please, I need you, don't leave me, I need you, especially now my dad's…gone"

He broke down into fits of sobs at her bedside; he fell to his knees and rested his head on her arm.

Harry appeared then, his right arm in a sling; he looked at the scene in front of him, instantly feeling like it should have been him that was lying there.

"Hey…she'll be ok you know…" he layed a hand on Oliver's shoulder.

"Thanks for saving her Harry, I don't want to even think what would have happened if you hadn't gone in there to save her…"

After that, Oliver was sat down and told the full, no details held back account of what had happened the other night…


	8. Coming To Terms

Innocent Words Act II

Author: Captain Cornflake

Chapter Eight: Coming To Terms

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The entire school spent the next few days in massive shock, particularly the Slytherins, seeing as they were now without a head of house. For this, as always, they blamed the Gryffindors. Even after Professor McGonagall had explained the events of that night in their entirety. 

Malfoy in particular was pissed off, he launched a full-scale grudge match against any Gryffindor that crossed his path, and this of course, earned him a few detentions.

What was left of professor Snape was buried near professor Dumbledore.

Ron, Hermione and Elizabeth left the hospital wing a few hours after Oliver arrived, but Harry stayed for another day, mainly to keep his old friend company.

"I Still can't believe it" he broke the silence.

"What?" asked Harry

"That she was going to have my baby, and she never even told me"

"Yeah I know, if I'd known, I would never have let her play."

"What? She played? When?"

"The Slytherin game a few days ago, that's how she ended up in here in the first place. She got hit by a bludger, and then later on that night that's when this happened..."

 "Oh man, I should have been here for her"

"Your mum needed you, it was just a case of bad timing"

"I know, but I can't help but blame myself"

 "Look Oliver, listen to me" Harry grabbed his shoulders, "it's not your fault, stop blaming yourself, it was Snape and that little Flint bastard who put Em in here"

"Flint?" Wood had a dangerous gleam in his eye, "he has a brother?"

"Don't go doing anything stupid now"

"Oh I won't, I just want a quiet word with him, what's he look like?"

"Just like his brother."

Wood jumped up and stormed out, filled with an appetite for revenge.

"Oliver wait no!"

Harry couldn't stop him.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 Meanwhile, McGonagall was in Snape's office, searching for any clues as to why he had lost it and tried to kill a student.

She came across a wooden box on one of the shelves, packed tightly with letters, and of a secretive nature thought the head.

She picked one out and began to read it:

_Dearest Severus, _

_All plans are ready to be put into action tomorrow, after the match with Gryffindor. We'll get him. The boy-who-lived, ha, not for long he won't be._

_ I've waited fourteen years for this, don't let me down Severus._

_There will be severe penalties if you do._

_L.V_

The letter fluttered to the floor as the head put a hand to her mouth in shock.

"He went back," she whispered to herself

Wood wandered the corridors of the castle, looking for the pint-sized version of his arch-nemesis.

He was boiling over with rage, but it didn't show in his face, and then he saw, the mini super-git. Ooh was he going to get it now.

"You" he hissed, approaching the boy at some speed. He picked Flint up by his shoulders and pinned him to the wall.

"Who the hell are you?" asked Damian as he squirmed about.

"Oliver Wood, your beloved older brother might remember me"

 "Oh, you"

"Yes me, I've got a bone to pick with you."

"Oh yeah, what?" said the twelve year old, rather cockily, considering the situation he was in.

"You" hissed Oliver, through clenched teeth

"You caused my fiancée, you caused her to have a miscarriage you son-of-a..."

"Right, and I care why?"

"Why you little, I'll kill you"

Wood pushed the boy against the wall.

"Yeah right"

At that moment, two sixth year Slytherins appeared, dragged him off Flint and held him back.

"I'll get you back, I swear to god I will, you murdered my kid"

He threw off the grip of the two others who had appeared and stormed off, back towards the hospital wing

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

McGonagall was still horrified that the man she had once trusted as her deputy head had been in contact with the dark lord. Voldemort had been using him, she realised suddenly. He had been trying to kill Harry once again, and he didn't care who got hurt or killed in the process. As long as Potter was dead

She left the office and walked back to the hospital wing, to warn Harry to be on his guard.

Harry waited patiently for Wood to come back, hoping he hadn't done anything stupid

He glanced sadly at Em again, wishing it were him lying there; he blamed himself just as much as wood did. If only he'd gotten there earlier, he might have been able to stop this from happening.

He ran the backs of his fingers over her cheek, so pale, so cold, almost like she was dead.

McGonagall swept in, looking slightly worried

"Mr potter, I need a word, now..."

She led him away, into Madam pomfrey's empty little office.

"Snape was trying to kill you, but not for himself, he was doing it for you-know-who."

Harry's face dropped, he ran a hand through his hair and sighed heavily.

"It's just unfortunate that Miss Stewart got caught up in the plot"

He sighed again and looked back at the arched entrance as wood came back.

Harry excused himself from the teacher and caught up with him

"Are you alright?"

"No im not" he growled, "that little shit just couldn't care less that he killed someone"

Harry shook his head. Flint really had proven his place in Slytherin was correct.

"Just forget about him, he'll get his comeuppance one of these days, he really will"

"You think so?" said wood.

"Yeah" smiled Harry sympathetically.

 He looked into woods eyes and saw that he was frightened like a child.

Wood went back to Em's side and layed his head on her slightly rounded stomach. There he cried, he cried tears of anguish, anger and grief.

 Harry left the hospital wing and made his way back to the Gryffindor tower, thankfully avoiding any Slytherins.

 He went into the common room, which was packed out with seventh years, studying for the upcoming NEWTS.

Harry sat down, in a very bad mood with the world, until Hermione appeared, with a book under her arm.

"Hey Harry, how's Oliver?"

"It's eating him up inside, I've never seen him this upset."

"Yeah" she sighed, sitting down, "I'm not going to say I know how he feels, because I don't."

"Mione, that should have been me, not Em"

"Harry, now you're blaming yourself, stop it."

"No, Im serious" he snapped, "Snape was trying to kill me for Vol-, You-know-who!"

Hermione's expression changed rapidly, her jaw almost ht the floor

"Oh god, but, he can't, can he still get to you..."

"Not himself, he'd have to use another poor person to try and kill me..."

"Just like Snape and professor Quirrell," sighed the Prefect...

"Yeah, you'd think he'd have given up by now wouldn't you?"

"Mm hmm" she said, and then went silent, allowing the volume in the room to take over

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Two days later, Oliver went back home for his dad's funeral. It was a small affair, with only ten people in total attending.

Afterwards, there was a little gathering at the wood estate, where the guests milled about, making small talk with one another.

One of Ian's workmates approached Oliver, noting that the depressed teen had been nursing the same whisky on ice for the last half an hour.

"Hey, he was really proud of you, you know"

"I know he was..."

"You seem to have a lot on your mind, you want to talk about it?"

"Nah, I'm just a bit..." he sighed, "...pissed off with the world."

"Yeah, I understand, you just lost your dad, you're bound to be upset.

"Steve" started Oliver, " It's not just that, my girlfriend was pregnant, but the daft sod played a game at school and then she had a miscarriage, which wasn't her fault. Then she got dragged into an accident, and now's she's petrified."

"Jeez, now I understand why you're so pissed off, I'm sorry."

"I supposed to be marrying her in July"

 "Hey" said Steve, laying a hand on his shoulder, "it'll be ok, you'll still get to marry this girl in July I can tell"

"You think so?"

"Yeah, you deserve each other..."

"Thanks Steve" said Oliver, standing up and shaking Steve's hand...


	9. Months LaterGraduation

Innocent Words Act II  
  
Author: Captain Cornflake  
  
Chapter Nine: Months Later, Graduation.  
  
-Disclaimer-  
  
I do NOT own Harry Potter (waaaahhhh, I wish I did!), I own Em thought, so ner.  
  
A/N: And here it is, at last, the fruits of three weeks of hard work, temper tantrums on my pen, many cases of writers block and such, ladies and gent, and small children, I give you, chapter nine, thank you -takes a bow-  
The weeks were passing by slowly, seeming likes years to Oliver, who was still facing the agonising wait for Professor Sprout's mandrake plants to mature.  
  
He's been in his sixth year last time he'd seen anything like this happen. He'd been sixteen years old the last time he'd seen that glazed over look in anyone's eyes.  
  
He was now nearly twenty years old, graduated two years previously, not with the best marks ever, but he'd graduated all the same.  
  
All the other seventh years were stressing over their NEWTS, which were now upon them.  
  
Fred and George were quite relaxed considering that they were true slackers, who hadn't worked anywhere near as well as they could have in all their seven years at the school.  
  
McGonagall ordered Oliver to go home for a few days, to rest and get ready for his wedding, which the head was determined to make happen.  
  
Thankfully, the season was over now, and Puddlemere finished in second place in the league, despite playing their last six games without their star seeker.  
  
Harry, after Wood left, visited Em every day and kept asking if the mandrakes were ready yet.  
  
Finally, on the 14th of June, the curative plant was ready. The juice was squeezed from their roots, their faces screaming all the while.  
  
Madam Pomfrey and Professor Sprout alerted McGonagall that the petrified student was about to be cured.  
  
Harry got wind of this and refused not to be there, to comfort her and explain what had happened on that fateful night. But the headmistress told him that he should wait for her in the Great Hall.  
  
The medi-witch poured the foul smelling drink into a small silver goblet, which she then poured into Em's open mouth.  
  
Everyone stepped back a step or two and waited nervously for there to be the desired effect.  
  
All of a sudden, Em's outstretched fell slowly to her side. She blinked several times very rapidly, before coughing while pulling herself into a sitting position.  
  
Professor McGonagall had stepped forward and placed a hand on the girls shoulder as she sat up, spluttering slightly.  
  
She took a few deep breaths before looking at the head teacher.  
  
"Professor." she breathed, "What happened?"  
  
"You've been petrified for the past two and a half months Miss Stewart, Professor Snape tried to kill yourself and Mr Potter."  
  
"Harry? Is he alright?" asked Em, staring in disbelief.  
  
"Yes Mr Potter is fine, he had a few cuts and bruises, but he was more concerned about you, and you don't have to worry about Snape, he died in the fire that happened after your little accident."  
  
"Accident?"  
  
"I hate to have to be the one to tell you this Emilia, but you've had a miscarriage."  
  
Em's eyes widened in horror, the chocolate orbs drowning in salt water.  
  
"You can do one of two things now." Said McGonagall, stepping back to look at Em's face, "You can either stay in here until you feel ready to rejoin your classmates, or you can wait return to your friends at dinner. It's your choice."  
  
Em glanced up over and sniffed slightly.  
  
"I think I should go back to normal now, better sooner rather than later.  
  
Em hopped down off the bed and walked away, until she was stopped by McGonagall calling her name.  
  
"Emilia" she started, "I'm sorry."  
  
Em sighed and thanked the three women behind her, before heading out of the Infirmary.  
  
She peeled off the scarlet and gold sweater she'd been wearing for the past couple of months, leaving her wearing only the thing crème t-shirt she always wore underneath her Quidditch robes on.  
  
She folded the thick wool over her arm as she walked along, sniffing slightly. Then she looked up, there he was, standing at the other end of the corridor, walking slowly towards her, like in all those muggle movies she'd seen and heard about.  
  
~I wanna know Whoever told you I was letting go The only joy that I have ever known Girl they were lying  
  
Just look around At all of the people that we used to know Have just given up, they wanna let it go But we're still trying~  
  
He almost didn't believe what he was seeing; there she was, moving again, almost in slow motion, it was almost unreal.  
  
~So you should know this love we shared was Never made to die I'm glad we're on this one-way street, Just you and I Just you and I~  
  
He pulled her into his arms and for the first time in over three months she cried. She held tightly to his arms and shoulders, he tangled his fingers in her hair, while smoothing the strands with the other. He whispered softly in her ear as he held her close to him.  
  
~I'm never gonna say goodbye 'Cause I never wanna see you cry I swore to you my love would remain And I swear it all over again, and I I'm never gonna treat you bad 'Cause I never wanna see you sad I swore to share your joy and your pain And I swear it all over again  
  
All over again~  
  
Oliver led her away to the Gryffindor tower, she opened the portrait hole and they sat down on the sofa, and held each other in their arms. They parted and rested their foreheads against one another.  
  
~Some people say That everything has got it's place and time Even the day must give way to the night But I'm not buying 'Cause in your eyes I see a love that burns eternally And if you see how beautiful you are to me You'll know I'm not lying~  
  
Wood gazed down into his fiancée's eyes, which seemed to be on fire as they always were, but the fire was dampened and shadowed by a veil of sadness and doubt.  
  
"I thought I was going to lose you"  
  
"Not yet, I'm not leaving you just yet."  
  
~Sure there'll be times we wanna say goodbye But even if we tried There are some things in this life won't be Denied Won't be denied  
  
I'm never gonna say goodbye 'Cause I never wanna see you cry I swore to you my love would remain And I swear it all over again, and I I'm never gonna treat you bad 'Cause I never wanna see you sad I swore to share your joy and your pain And I swear it all over again~  
  
Oliver stood up, straightened out his jacket and got down on one knee in front of Em. He held one hand between both of his palms and caressed each finger lovingly with his thumbs.  
  
~The more I know of you is the more I know I love you And more that I'm sure I want you forever And ever more And the more that you love me, the more that I Know Oh that I'm never gonna let you go Gotta let you know that I~  
  
"You will still do me the honour of being Mrs Wood?"  
  
Em's eyes were filled up with tears of joy and happiness.  
  
"Yes" she choked, wrapping her arms round his shoulders, resting her chin and mouth just below his ear, "I will marry you."  
  
He wrapped his arms around her and held her close to him for several minutes.  
  
A bell rang out, signalling lunchtime. Em pulled back from Oliver's strong arms and stood up, pulling him to his feet in front of her.  
  
"I need to go change, I'm supposed to be re-joining Harry and the others soon."  
  
"Alright I'll uh, I'll wait for you here.."  
  
"Ok, I'll be right back."  
  
Her words trailed off as she disappeared up the stairs to the dorms.  
  
~I'm never gonna say goodbye 'Cause I never wanna see you cry I swore to you my love would remain And I swear it all over again, and I I'm never gonna treat you bad 'Cause I never wanna see you sad I swore to share your joy and your pain And I swear it all over again  
  
All over again  
  
And I swear it all over again~  
  
Em showered quickly, dried, plaited her hair and pulled on her school robes. She stared into the reflective mirror as she straightened her scarlet and gold tie on her collar.  
  
She ran the tips of her right hand over her midriff, thinking briefly of the child that wasn't meant to be.  
  
She shook her head and left the room stepping lightly down the stone stairs.  
  
Oliver had waited for her; he took her hand and led her away, out of the tower and towards the Great Hall.  
  
Harry had half-expected Em to just stay in the hospital wing until the weekend, when no one would really notice her leaving.  
  
"I'm going to go see her later on" he said, turning to Ron, who's mouth was full of chicken leg, as always.  
  
Hermione shook her head and glanced at the twins, who were unusually quiet for a Friday afternoon.  
  
She was about to ask them what they were up to, when she was cut off by Katie half choking and calling out:  
  
"Harry look! It's Em!"  
  
Harry leaned back, looking past Ron towards the back of the hall, where was standing, surveying the room with her glassy brown eyes, looking for her friends.  
  
A few students from each of the other tables looked around. The particularly sour Slytherins looked up with daggers for eyes. Malfoy scowled and went to get up and kick the living shit out of Quidditch girl. Amazingly, Crabbe and Goyle held him down in his seat.  
  
Em spotted her little group and began to run towards them. Harry stood up and smiled broadly.  
  
She ran into him and hugged him tightly. The teen wizard returned the feeling and patted his friend on the shoulders.  
  
A few Gryffindors clapped slightly, overjoyed that their house was back to its full capacity.  
  
She sat down in between the twins, who also patted her on the shoulders.  
  
A paper aeroplane slotted itself between the plate and goblet in front of Em. She jumped back a little and then tentatively unfolded the note, reading the elegant and neat handwriting. It read:  
  
~It's all your fault he's dead, It's all you  
  
I'm gonna get you, I swear on Snape's memory, if it's the last thing I do, I'm going to kill you~  
  
"Oh my." breathed Em, letting the paper go.  
  
Hermione picked it up and read the threatening words to herself. She glanced at Em's frightened expression and passed the note to Harry.  
  
Harry read it and stared at the Slytherin table, some of whom stared back with immense distaste.  
  
"Don't worry about this." he said, crumpling up the letter into a ball, "99% of the time, Slytherin don't follow up on their threats."  
  
Em forced and uneasy smile, "I hope you're right, because I don't really need death-threats right now."  
  
"You guys finished second in the league you know.." piped up Elizabeth.  
  
"We did? Brilliant!" beamed Em, her eyes brightening slightly.  
  
After that, everyone caught her up on what had been going on while she'd been incapacitated. Alicia, Angelina and Katie stressed that she had nothing to worry about with the NEWTS, to which Fred gave a derisive snort.  
  
Katie slapped him in arm and scolded him for worrying their friend.  
  
"Take no noticed of him, the exams are fine, we'll help you study for them."  
  
"Thanks you guys, I reckon I'm gonna need all the help I can get."  
  
Em was given a week to recover from all that had happened to her. Then, in the three remaining weeks of term after that, she had to study for and do the seventeen exams that would earn her graduation.  
  
No one really saw her after that, unless they caught her in the common room studying for her practical exams, or flitting between classrooms for catch- up sessions with the necessary.  
  
After leaving her practical Divination exam, very close to strangling Professor Trelawny for constantly disturbing her with her usual random pointers.  
  
She wandered the corridors towards the Great Hall, with her notes for Muggle Studies under her arm.  
  
She was grumbling to herself about the ever changing practical she'd just had.  
  
A pair of arms grabbed her suddenly, by the shoulders and held her firmly to the wall.  
  
"What the? What the hell do you want Malfoy?"  
  
"You've made a lot of enemies Stewart" snapped the Slytherin Seeker, "You really should watch your back."  
  
Em remained silent ash she contemplated her next move. She exhaled heavily as his face inched closer hers.  
  
"Malfoy" she started, laying her hands on his shoulders, "I suggest you watch your own back."  
  
She gripped his shoulders tightly as she raised her knee into his crotch.  
  
She blonde teen crumpled to the floor in pain, his silver eyes filling up with tears.  
  
Em looked down at the balled up Slytherin, smirking slightly as she walked away, heading for the Great Hall.  
  
When she entered, Harry immediately noticed the triumphant look on her face. She sat down and pulled her hair out of the tight bun it had been in and shook it around her shoulders.  
  
Harry looked at her, wondering why she was smiling like that, yes it was good to finish an exam, but not THAT good.  
  
"What's up with you?" he asked, looking slightly suspicious.  
  
"Well, let's just say Malfoy got his comeuppance."  
  
Harry cocked his head to one side and looked a little confused, Em continued:  
  
"It was Malfoy who wrote that note the other day, and he just caught me on the way here, he had me up against the wall, and I."  
  
"He what?" stormed Harry, "I'll kill him"  
  
"Wait a minute, I'm not finished yet. As I was saying, he had me against the wall, telling me I should watch my back, so I told him he should watch his back, then I kneed right him right in the uh, right in the crotch."  
  
"Oh brilliant! Well done!" exclaimed Harry, high fiving Em as Malfoy walked, or rather limped in, looking a little pissed off. "It's about time he got a good kicking."  
  
Crabbe and Goyle moved so their boss could sit down.  
  
The following week, Em completely finished her exams, the last one being her practical in advanced flying, which she passed with 'flying' colours of course. Obviously she had a slightly unfair advantage some might say, being a professional Quidditch player and all.  
  
She celebrated finishing the exams by having a mini-party with the girls in the dorm room.  
  
After one too many Butterbeers, there were shots competitions with a muggle drink Katie had acquired called vodka.  
  
The next morning, all the seventh years woke up with severe headaches which they spent entire day nursing.  
  
There was one week to go until the end of the year fest and the seventh years graduation, so the race was on to get as many points total as high as possible  
  
Unfortunately, the Friday of the feast came around far too quickly and Gryffindor were still in second place, eighty points behind their rivals. The hall was adorned in the Slytherin colours, but behind the teachers' table, there was a black banner as a mark of respect for Snape.  
  
Em shuddered slightly as she entered the hall, looking up over at the emerald green and silver banners.  
  
Sitting down at the table, Ron and Hermione both put their heads in their hands.  
  
Not many of the Gryffindors heard much of what Professor McGonagall said until the points totals were being announced.  
  
".and in second place, with 450 points, Gryffindor house."  
  
There was a weak cheers from a couple of tables.  
  
"And in first place, with 530 points, Slytherin house."  
  
The Slytherin table erupted into an endless wave of whoops and cheers.  
  
McGonagall raised a hand, and the hall fell silent. Harry began to get a weird feeling of déjà vu.  
  
"I have a few amendments to make to the totals however, events which have been overlooked in the past few months."  
  
Malfoy's triumphant smile faded slightly, and her arched a confused eyebrow.  
  
"To Mr Ronald Weasley, Miss Hermione granger, and Miss Elizabeth Aryton, for strong bravery in the face of an unusual danger, I award Gryffindor thirty points."  
  
A cheer went up around the hall, until the head raised her hand again.  
  
"Secondly, to Mr Harry Potter, for true Gryffindor courage and for saving a fellow students life, fifty points"  
  
Some Gryffindors lifted from their seats, applauding loudly.  
  
Another hush fell as McGonagall raised both her hands for silence, most Gryffindors by now, were grinning like Cheshire Cats.  
  
"Finally, to someone who never let their personal or professional life interfere with schoolwork in a very difficult two years, I award twenty points to Miss Emilia Stewart"  
  
Em's eyes went wide, as did her mouth; she lost her voice from shock, half the table was on their feet, clapping and whooping loudly.  
  
Harry slapped her on the shoulders, smiling broadly as he clapped his hands profusely, overjoyed that there had been a repeat of his first year.  
  
"Now, in the words of Professor Dumbledore, if my calculations are correct, I believe that a change of decoration is in order."  
  
She wove her hands about, and the banners began to waver as if caught in a passing breeze.  
  
Em noticed the colours fading from the cold Slytherin green and silver, to the heart warming Gryffindor scarlet and gold.  
  
A broad smile crossed her face as the adornments stopped moving and settled back into their original positions.  
  
"Gryffindor wins the house cup!"  
  
The Gryffindor table was up and on their feet, clapping, smiling and hugging one another, some were even crying with joy.  
  
Colin Creevey was at the front of the hall, taking a picture of the winning house, again.  
  
He was also taking pictures for the seventh years to but off him for scrapbooks and such, he really did know how to make a few galleons here and there.  
  
After the celebrations died down, there was little to no students left in the hall, save a couple sitting at each table.  
  
Em sat on the Gryffindor table, kicking her heels in the bench. She sighed, slightly sad as she glanced around the nearly empty room.  
  
Echoing footsteps approached, she lifted her head, and it was McGonagall.  
  
"The others are getting their exam results, do you not want to find out how you did?"  
  
"I'll find out later, I'm just, taking a while to get it straight that my time here is over and that I'm like, leaving soon."  
  
"Yes, I understand, I can tell you your results if you don't want to read them off the notice board in your common room."  
  
"You can? How'd I do?" asked Em, only half eager to know.  
  
The headmistress smiled slightly and continued:  
  
"You passed, with 95%, you also got also got full marks in Flying, Charms and Transfiguration"  
  
Em gasped and put a hand to her mouth in shock, she'd never expected to do that well.  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Really, you did well, congratulations."  
  
"Thank you professor, although, I couldn't have done it without my friends"  
  
"Well why don't you go and thank them then?" "Yeah I think I will"  
  
She ran out of the hall, full of the joys of the world.  
  
"I passed, I actually passed." she called, as she spotted her friends.  
  
"Well done!" cried Alicia, hugging her tightly.  
  
"But I couldn't have doe it without you guys."  
  
What followed could only be described as a botched group hug.  
  
Angelina, Alicia and Katie all hugged Em, then Fred and George joined in the fun, clamping onto their respective girlfriends.  
  
Harry and Elizabeth appeared and congratulated their friend and ex teammate.  
  
"I'm going to have a lot of fun replacing you guys you know that?" said Harry, remembering that he was the only Gryffindor team player left after tomorrow.  
  
"Heh, I'm sure you'll do fine, you're a good captain" replied Em, patting him on the shoulder.  
  
He gave her a half smile and wished the group good luck for graduation the following day.  
  
The largely lavish annual graduation ceremony went ahead without a hitch, even the Slytherins kept themselves to themselves.  
  
Later on that evening, a party had been organised in Hogsmeade, with a theme of the seventh year's choice.  
  
After a decisive vote, the theme of fancy dress was chosen.  
  
So the 40 graduating students set about finding a unique costume to wear, which proved to be quite fun.  
  
Alicia, Angelina, Em and Katie decided to go as American muggle high school students.  
  
Alicia went as the outcast geek girl, Angelina as the foreign exchange student, Em as head cheerleader, complete with black spanky pants and pompoms. Finally, after some highlights, Katie went as the stereotypical dumb blonde.  
  
Fred and George went as jocky football players, which got a few laughs from the Hufflepuff girls.  
  
The party was to be at the Shrieking Shack, with food, drink, dancing and karaoke.  
  
Several hours later, after a large amount of Butterbeer and several incidents of exposed spanky pants, the Gryffindor girls accepted the challenge of getting up and singing on the karaoke.  
  
The chose a song by a muggle group called Queen, which Angelina had heard during the course of the year.  
  
The huddled themselves around the two microphones on the stage as the first chords of the song rang out.  
  
They all sang together:  
  
~Tonight I`m gonna have myself a real good time  
  
I feel alive and the world it`s turning inside out Yeah!  
  
I`m floating around in ecstasy  
  
So don`t stop me now don`t stop me  
  
`Cause I`m having a good time having a good time~  
  
A mid-temp clapping, to the tune of the song began to echo around the room.  
  
~I`m a shooting star leaping through the skies  
  
Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity  
  
I`m a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva  
  
I`m gonna go go go  
  
There`s no stopping me~  
  
The four girls were jumping about, scarcely able to hold the microphones, let alone sing, but they were managing.  
  
~I`m burning through the skies Yeah!  
  
Two hundred degrees  
  
That`s why they call me Mister Fahrenheit  
  
I`m trav`ling at the speed of light  
  
I wanna make a supersonic man of you~  
  
On that last line, Angelina and Katie pointed at Fred and George who both blushed but cheered loudly.  
  
~Don`t stop me now I`m having such a good time  
  
I`m having a ball don`t stop me now  
  
If you wanna have a good time just give me a call  
  
Don`t stop me now (`Cause I`m having a good time)  
  
Don`t stop me now (Yes I`m having a good time)  
  
I don`t want to stop at all~  
  
The clapping came from more people and it got much louder.  
  
~I`m a rocket ship on my way to Mars  
  
On a collision course  
  
I am a satellite I`m out of control  
  
I am a sex machine ready to reload  
  
Like an atom bomb about to  
  
Oh oh oh oh oh explode~  
  
The actions that went with that verse earned one too many whoops, cheers and wolf-whistles from the boys in the crowd.  
  
~I`m burning through the skies Yeah!  
  
Two hundred degrees  
  
That`s why they call me Mister Fahrenheit  
  
I`m trav`ling at the speed of light  
  
I wanna make a supersonic woman out of you~  
  
A few younger pupils, namely Gryffindors, and they had joined in on the applause.  
  
~Don`t stop me don`t stop me don`t stop me  
  
Hey hey hey!  
  
Don`t stop me don`t stop me  
  
Ooh ooh ooh (I like it)  
  
Don`t stop me have a good time good time  
  
Don`t stop me don`t stop me  
  
Ooh ooh Alright~  
  
Katie and Em did mock air guitar duet in the middle of the stage, which made for a huge round of cheers.  
  
~I`m burning through the skies Yeah!  
  
Two hundred degrees  
  
That`s why they call me Mister Fahrenheit  
  
I`m trav`ling at the speed of light  
  
I wanna make a supersonic woman of you  
Don`t stop me now I`m having such a good time  
  
I`m having a ball don`t stop me now  
  
If you wanna have a good time  
  
Just give me a call  
  
Don`t stop me now (`Cause I`m having a good time)  
  
Don`t stop me now (Yes I`m having a good time)  
  
I don`t wanna stop at all  
La la la la laaaa  
  
La la la la  
  
La la laa laa laa laaa  
  
La la laa la la la la la laaa hey!!....~  
  
As the song ended, the cheers and applause from the crowd drowned the music out; the girls jumped down from the stage, and made their way back to their seats.  
  
"Enjoy that?" asked Fred.  
  
"Heck yeah!" answered the girls, in unison. 


	10. I Do

Innocent Words Act II  
  
Author: Captain Cornflake  
  
Chapter Ten: I Do  
  
-Disclaimer-  
  
I do NOT own Harry Potter (waaaahhhh, I wish I did!), I own Em thought, so ner.  
  
A/N: Well ladies, after several weeks of extensive research on weddings and locations, I bring you all, chapter ten, things really do get happy here, I promise.  
  
After the graduation party, the seventh years returned to the castle to sleep off the night's activities.  
  
The next day they set about packing their things for going home on Monday.  
  
Em decided to pay one more visit to the Quidditch field and then the trophy cabinet. Gryffindor had won the Cup for the past two times. She smiled slightly to herself until she saw another face reflecting in the glass case.  
  
"You know, looking at this now, it doesn't seem like it ever happened.. it's weird"  
  
"But it did happen, and as the head of house I'm very proud of that." replied the hawk-eyed teacher.  
  
Em turned around to face her, pride written all over her face.  
  
"We're losing some fantastic players this year, this six of you are going to be very hard to replace."  
  
Em laughed to herself and smiled slightly.  
  
"Harry will find a new team for sure"  
  
"Yes.Potter is a fine captain. I'm sure he will bring the house great success next year.."  
  
"Yeah.I gotta go, I've still got a few things to do.."  
  
"Yes, yes, you get yourself away" urged the teacher, giving Em a light push on the shoulder.  
  
The following morning all the students gathered at the Hogsmeade station, saying goodbye to one another for the summer at lest.  
  
Harry was saying a brief goodbye to Em and reassuring her that he would be at the wedding on Saturday. Hermione, Ron, Elizabeth and the twins had also accepted invitations to the relatively small event.  
  
Em and Oliver had agreed to invite a couple of teachers who'd had a big influence on them both. McGonagall, Madam Hooch and Professor Flitwick were the privileged few.  
  
Harry hugged Em tightly as he prepared to get on the train.  
  
"Don't worry, I'll be there, you'll see."  
  
"Thank you." she whispered, holding back a tear.  
  
The six teens boarded the train and sat down together in a cramped compartment.  
  
Em glanced at the other three girls and asked:  
  
"Have you guys decided on what colour you're wearing on Saturday?"  
  
"Almost, we're down to three, so we want your opinion, after all, it is your wedding."  
  
She blushed slightly and asked what the colours were.  
  
"Well." started Katie  
  
"There's baby blue, minty green or a dusty lilac with a thing silver scarf type thingy."  
  
"Well, I'm carrying lilies for flowers so colour isn't much of a problem, although a I do like the sound of the lilac."  
  
"Ok, lilac it is then." clapped Katie.  
  
"Actually, why not have all three, like each one of you had a different colour, but the same style dress?"  
  
"Yeah, good idea, then we don't have to pick one colour."  
  
"Problem solved then.." sighed Em, sinking back into her seat.  
  
"So, what's your better half wearing then?" Smiled Alicia, wiggling her eyebrows.  
  
"Well what do you think?" grinned Em, arching an eyebrow.  
  
The four girls dissolved into fits of giggles until the twins asked what was so funny.  
  
"Well," said Katie, stifling another laugh, "We all know what Scotsman don't wear under their kilts heh heh heh."  
  
"Oh right." George grimaced, trying not to think too much on that one.  
  
"So." asked Fred, "you getting really excited then?"  
  
"Of course, well, excited and nervous actually, I'm marrying the man of my dreams, I've got the career of my dreams." replied Em, getting all dreamy eyed.  
  
"You're so lucky, I tell you, if you weren't with Oliver, I'd have him any day." grinned Katie.  
  
"Hey." exclaimed George, looking quite hurt.  
  
"I'm just kidding, you know I love ya." smiled Katie, latching onto his arm.  
  
The conversation went on like that for the rest of the journey until the night drew in and the train stopped at King's Cross.  
  
Everyone poured off the train onto the long platform, luggage was unloaded onto trolleys and people passed through the barrier in ones and twos.  
  
After the group had passed through, they gathered in a small clearing, just to say goodbye, until Friday at least.  
  
"Promise you'll owl me ASAP if you can't be there."  
  
"Ok, we promise" said Angelina, hugging her friend tightly.  
  
Em sighed and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she cried out 'Ol!' as she saw him striding towards them, smiling slightly.  
  
She disentangled herself from Angelina and ran towards him. She jumped up at him; he caught her in his arms. She wrapped her legs around his waist and kissed him several times on the top of the head.  
  
He laughed and stumbled back slightly, holding her waist tightly.  
  
"Oh I missed you..." she said, hugging his head to her chest.  
  
"I missed you too baby, but can you sort of let go of me, your chest is making it hard to breathe, although it is a lovely sight."  
  
"Oops, sorry." laughed Em, jumping down to the ground.  
  
There was a moment's silence before George let out a suppressed snicker.  
  
"I really needed to hear that." he said, with a grimace.  
  
"And what's wrong with my boobs?" asked Em mockingly.  
  
"Um...I.I.I.uh" he stuttered, trying to think of a response.  
  
Katie folded her arms and leaned to one side, staring at him with frightening intent.  
  
"I'm just kidding." laughed Em, relaxing her stance.  
  
The elder twin breathed a sigh of relief as Oliver came up behind her and snaked his arms around her waist.  
  
She squeaked and jumped forward slightly, remembering what happened that last time someone did that to her.  
  
Wood stepped back and then drew her into his arms, whispering 'sorry'. She sighed and buried her nose into his chest, breathing heavily.  
  
The other five teens looked on worriedly, obviously her ordeal was affecting her psychologically more than physically and emotionally.  
  
"Well, we'd best be getting away, we gotta sort out dresses out for Saturday and organise some uh, entertainment for Friday night" said Angelina.  
  
Oliver raised an eyebrow until the twins laughed and reassured him:  
  
"Don't worry Ol, we've got something lined up for you too. Heh heh heh"  
  
Both Em and Oliver arched their left eyebrows, looking freakishly alike.  
  
"Ack! Will you two not do that?" exclaimed Alicia  
  
"Do what?" asked Em, batting her eyelashes innocently.  
  
"That evil eyebrow thingy that you do"  
  
"Oh, that thing.." said Em, smiling to herself.  
  
"Seriously, we gotta go now. We will see you on Friday, come hell or high water."  
  
"Ok you guys, I'll see you then."  
  
The six teens went their separate ways. Fred and George took Katie, Alicia and Angelina home with them, and Oliver took Em back to Scotland. There, he wasn't allowed in one of the bedroom's, namely because Em's dress was inside. Fiona had put a spell on the door so he got a little shock every time he touched it.  
  
The week between Em's graduation and the big day passed very quickly, for Oliver, because he was looking forward to getting plastered on his stag night, which he thought was gonna be a few quiet pints and a few games of pool with the lads. Boy was he wrong.  
  
Em on the other hand was fretting about every little thing, Fiona and Hazel were forever telling her that everything was fine and had been so for several months now.  
  
Now, the other six women who were organising the hen night: Fiona, Hazel, Angelina, Alicia, Katie and Em's cousin Melanie, had organised the mandatory club crawl and stripper. Completely without Em knowing of course.  
  
Friday night came around very quickly, and the evening's activities began quite slowly.  
  
Fred, Oscar, George, Steve and Oliver headed down the local pub for a few pints before moving onto the unplanned segment of fun.  
  
The girls started the evening with jelly shots competitions, which 23-year- old Melanie won hands down.  
  
After that, they headed into town for the club crawl, which lasted a lot less time than expected. The group then headed back to the house for the evening's finale.  
  
They were sitting in the living room when Hazel glanced knowingly at Fiona, who sniffed the air and said:  
  
"Can you smell that?"  
  
"Smell what?" asked Em, whilst necking back another vodka shot.  
  
"It smells like something's burning."  
  
Em raised a drunken, sceptical eyebrow until a smooth and sexy voice called out:  
  
"Did someone say burning?"  
  
Em laughed, cringed and covered her face with her hands as a 6'1" stripper dressed like a fireman slid into the room. She couldn't believe that the others had gone to all this trouble, just to make her hen night a night to remember.  
  
He made a beeline for the group and asked who the lucky bride-to-be was, the others all gestured in Em's direction who was laughing and blushing so hard it wasn't difficult to tell she had no idea this was going to happen.  
  
She threw her head and laughed heartily as the poor guy gyrated all over her, and as he wiggled his bum in her face the others were cheering her on to give it a slap, and she did, much the stripper guy's delight.  
  
He slowly and strategically peeled his outfit off until he was wearing nothing but a very small g-string..which was now lined with squirty cream and little balls of fluff thanks to the drunken women.  
  
It reached almost 2am before they even considered going to bed, and 'Gorgeous George' was long gone. They all crawled into bed, safe in the knowledge that all of the guys were staying at Steve's house, so there was no chance that they were going to come crashing in, drunk out of their minds.  
  
On Oliver's night out, the guys managed to get him to stay in a strip club for more than twenty minutes, because he was completely wasted. Which he delighted in shouting very loudly whilst having lager poured down his neck.  
  
He returned to Steve's house at nearly 1:30am, barely aware of the fact that he was getting married in almost 10 hours time.  
  
As with most all night benders, you have a tendency to get a hangover, and this was no exception.Em woke up at 9am, very groggy, and very hungover.  
  
She swaggered into the kitchen, sat down at one of the breakfast bar stools and thumped her down onto the bench.  
  
"Morning." mumbled Melanie, sipping on a cup of coffee.  
  
All she got back was an incoherent mutter which sounded a lot like 'Blah, mefh, bugger off!'  
  
The older girl smiled slightly and ruffled the hair on the back of Em's head,  
  
"Come on.you gotta wake up some time, remember, you're getting married in two and half hours time..." she started, in a sing-song voice.  
  
Em bolted up with a paper hankie stuck to her cheek, which then fluttered to the bench in front of her, her eyes were bloodshot and puffy, her skin was paler than usual, and her hair was all over the place.  
  
"I gotta wake up.wait need sleepy." she slurred before laying her head down again.  
  
Mel sighed and rolled her eyes; she went and got the hangover cure from the fridge, cold curry.  
  
She put it down, then went behind Em, put a hand underneath her forehead, lifted it up and pushed the plate under her face. The droopy teen inhaled the faintly spicy smell and bolted up again, eyes wide open.  
  
"Ah! Whaddya do that for?"  
  
"To wake you up silly.now come on, eat up, it'll get rid of that hangover of yours."  
  
"How come you don't have a hangover?" moaned Em, taking a mouthful of the cold yellow goop and rice mix.  
  
Mel merely shrugged her shoulders and said 'I'm just lucky I guess.'  
  
"Lucky bitch."  
  
Fiona, Hazel and Angelina surfaced, followed by Alicia and Katie twenty minutes later.they all drank several cups of teas and coffee to wake themselves up and shake off the previous nights escapades.  
  
Then all seven women took quick baths, the bride getting preference of course.  
  
After that came the mad dash to make sure everyone got ready on time, co- ordinating getting Oscar (Em's dad) over to the house, sober. Making sure the bridesmaids dresses didn't get mixed u with them all being different heights and sizes. Making sure the bride didn't pass out through nerves.  
  
Hazel took on the task of getting her hair and make-up done, seeing as no one else had seen her dress and she didn't want them to until she was ready to go.  
  
Em's hair was twisted up into an elegant bun, pinned with tiny sleepie clips; her make-up was simple, near non-existent, due to the fact that she had such thick eyelashes and that her complexion had a healthy tan to it right now, instead of being almost lily white as usual.  
  
"How'd you manage to get a tan so quick?" asked Hazel whilst applying the last layer of lip shine.  
  
"Like this." smiled Em, brandishing her wand in the air.  
  
"Ah.say no more." she paused, looking like she was contemplating something, "D'you reckon you could give me one real quick?"  
  
The teen smiled slightly and waved the wand in her mother's direction, suddenly, she had a healthy brown tinge to her skin, which was usually as pale as Em's was.  
  
"Sooo." started the proud mum, "You're not nervous?"  
  
"Well of course I'm nervous, I mean what if something goes wrong?"  
  
"Nothing will go wrong.trust me." Hazel paused for a moment, debating whether to ask her next question or not, "Do you love him?"  
  
Em gave her a looks as if to say 'what sort of stupid question is that?' before answering:  
  
"Of course I love him, I'll love him until the day I die. We've been through so much together, he helped me get settled in on the team, he stood by me when Cedric was killed, he waited so long to see me when I was petrified.he was almost the father of my baby."  
  
Hazel nodded sadly, noticing that most of those memories were sad ones.  
  
"Come on, you had best be getting your dress on, it's almost 11 o'clock."  
  
"Alright, but promise me you're not going to give me any of that teary eyed mum stuff when I come out."  
  
"I promise"  
  
Em disappeared into the bathroom to pull on her dress, Hazel ran to the door and gestured for Oscar to get himself upstairs so he could say a few things to her before they left.  
  
Em glanced in the mirror as she pulled the short zip up at the base of her back, this was it, it was one those life-changing moments. One fleeting second when you realise you're about to do something that will change your life forever. But that didn't bother her, because she knew she wanted to do this, and nothing was going to stand in her way.  
  
She took a deep breath and headed back into the bedroom, where her mum and her dad were now standing, looking proudly back at her:  
  
"Well." she looked hopefully at them, "What do you think?"  
  
"Oh my little girl" squeaked Hazel, pulling Em into her arms, "You're all grown up."  
  
"Oh come now Hazel, you knew this day would come sooner or later." said Oscar, gazing proudly at his only daughter.  
  
"You're right.I'll leave you two alone for a moment."  
  
Hazel left the room and Oscar took Em's hands in his.  
  
"We're both very proud of you, you know that? You've overcome the odds to get here today."  
  
"Dad stop you'll make me cry.."  
  
"Ok I'll stop, but just remember this.me and your mum, we love you very much, and will support you in anything you ever do in your life..and uh, your mum seems a bit anxious to hearing the pitter patter of tiny feet running around."  
  
Em rolled her eyes and laughed slightly. "I'm only eighteen, I wanna have a chance to enjoy what's left of my teens years with the man I love before I even think of trying to get pregnant again."  
  
"I know, I know, but trying telling your mum that." laughed Oscar, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze, "Do you want a couple of minutes alone?"  
  
"Yeah dad, if you don't mind"  
  
Oscar left the room; Em sat down and examined her engagement ring closely. He really did love her; he loved her enough to stand by her through all kinds of shit, the good, the bad, and the downright difficult..  
  
Downstairs, the other people were beginning to get a little nervous. Fiona appeared from the kitchen and smiled slightly.  
  
"That was Steve, Oliver's at the church."  
  
"Oh come on Em..." whined Alicia, who was getting rather agitated. "You're gonna be late!"  
  
"Its fashionable for the bride to be late..." shouted Em's muffled voice from upstairs.  
  
"Yeah but not *this* late" said Katie, glancing at her watch...  
  
Then there was a silence, the three girls looked nervously at one another until Angelina cautiously called out:  
  
"Em? Are you ok up there?"  
  
And then she appeared at the top of the stairs...Everyone looked around and gawped in awe, she looked totally different.  
  
"Em.I.you look gorgeous..." gushed Alicia, gripping her flowers tightly.  
  
"Thanks..." muttered the nerve-wracked teen, fiddling uncomfortably with her skirt.  
  
The dress was absolutely beautiful; the bodice was fitted and decorated in embroidered roses with spaghetti straps on her shoulders. The back was fairly low, with the shoulder straps criss-crossing over part of the way down. The skirt was long, near enough floor length, made of a beautiful almost see-through chiffon. Thankfully there were several layers of the chiffon, so you couldn't literally see through it.  
  
****************************************************************  
  
Fiona apparated ahead to the church, just to make sure her baby was all right.  
  
"Mum!" he exclaimed, hugging her when she appeared a couple of metres away from him. "How's Em?"  
  
"She's fine.she's fine, don't worry. But look at you, all grown up. Oh my baby boy..." she cried, hugging his chest.  
  
"Um Mum, not trying to be funny, but I'm not a baby anymore.I'm twenty years old."  
  
"You'll always be my baby though, no matter how old you are."  
  
"Thanks mum, I can't help but wonder what dad would be saying to me If he were here now."  
  
"He'd be telling you that he was proud of you.you've done him proud son, you've followed your dreams and you've got a lovely girl to share those dreams with..."  
  
"Go on, you better sit your bum down, she's gonna be here soon."  
  
He did just that, and sat there, in the front row, wringing his hands and rocking back and forth slightly.  
  
"You know, anyone would think that Mr cool-headed Captain was nervous.." teased Fred, noticing his friends discomfort.  
  
"Ok Fred, I am nervous, but remember, we're not talking about Quidditch y'know.we're talking about the rest of my life here."  
  
He snapped to and stood up as 'here comes the bride' started playing.he looked wide-eyed to the back of the church, and there she was. Suddenly everything else around him just didn't matter anymore. Nerves flew from his mind and all his energy focused on her.  
  
It seemed like she almost floated down the aisle, and that is what Oscar would have had her doing if he had gotten his own way.  
  
Oliver smiled softly to himself and to Em as she joined him at the front. Em had looked around the room as she was walking and saw that everyone she'd wanted to had come; Harry, Ron, Hermione, Elizabeth, McGonagall, Madam Hooch and even Professor Flitwick had managed to make it.  
  
She breathed heavily and felt like she was about to be sick as she stood there next to him. The priest opened his little book, although Em was sure he had done this a thousands of times before.  
  
"Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God to join together this Man and this Woman in holy Matrimony; which is an honourable estate, instituted of God in Paradise, and into which holy estate these two persons present come now to be joined."  
  
Em saw her mum was dabbing away tears already.  
  
"If anyone present can think of any lawful reason why these two people should not be joined in holy matrimony speak now, or forever hold your peace."  
  
Oliver held his breath for a few seconds until Priest Flaherty turned to him and continued:  
  
"Do you, Oliver Thomas Wood take Emilia Jennifer Stewart to be your lawfully wedded wife, Will you love her, comfort her, honour, and keep her, in sickness and in health; and forsaking all other, keep only unto her, so long as you both shall live?"  
  
Wood, with a tear in his eye, answered: 'I do'.  
  
The priest turned to Em and asked the same thing:  
  
"Do you, Emilia Jennifer Stewart take Oliver Thomas Wood to be your lawfully wedded husband, Will you love him, comfort him, honour, and keep him, in sickness and in health; and forsaking all other, keep only unto him, so long as you both shall live?"  
  
"I do..." she answered in a trembling tone.  
  
Then they turned to face one another, holding her left hand and his right hand in front each other.  
  
"I, Oliver Thomas Wood, do take thee Emilia Jennifer Stewart to be my lawful wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us depart."  
  
Then Em took Oliver's left hand in her right and said:  
  
"I Emilia Jennifer Stewart, do take thee Oliver Thomas Wood to be my lawful wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us depart."  
  
"Bless these Rings, O merciful Lord, that those who wear them, that give and receive them, may be ever faithful to one another, remain in your peace, and live and grow old together in your love, under their own vine and fig tree, and seeing their children's children. Amen." Announced Flaherty in a loud tone.  
  
Oliver picked up Em's ring from Steve and held it close to her slender hand:  
  
"With this Ring I thee wed," He placed it first on her thumb, "and with my body I honour you," he put it on the fourth finger of her left hand.  
  
She repeated the same process on him.smiling softly all the while.  
  
"Let us pray. O Eternal God, Creator and Preserver of all mankind, Giver of all spiritual grace, the Author of everlasting life; Send thy blessing upon these thy servants, this man and this woman, whom we bless in thy Name; + that, as Isaac and Rebecca lived faithfully together, so these persons may surely perform and keep the vow and covenant between them made, whereof this Ring given and received is a token and pledge, and may ever hereafter remain in perfect love and peace together, and live according to thy laws; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."  
  
The guests respectfully inclined their heads as Flaherty said a prayer for good luck and long length to their marriage.  
  
He then took both their hands and joined them tightly together:  
  
"Those whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder. Then shall the Minister speak unto the people. Forasmuch as Oliver and Emilia have consented together in holy wedlock, and have witnessed the same before God and this company, and thereto have given and pledged their troth each to the other, and have declared the same by giving and receiving of a Ring, and by joining of hands; I now pronounce you man and wife...you may kiss the bride."  
  
Oliver peeled back her veil slowly as if picking a delicate flower; he smiled at her, tears filling his eyes. She looked back, equally, if not more happy.  
  
She hooked both of her arms around his neck and pulled him close to her for one of those never-ending, mind-blowing passionate kisses..  
  
When they finally broke the kiss, the entire group of guests were on their feet, clapping and cheering for the newlyweds.  
  
"Mrs Oliver Wood." he said quietly, scooping her up into his arms. She screamed and giggled and he walked back up the aisle, beaming with pride.  
  
"Mr Oliver Wood." she whispered back, kissing him again.  
  
When they got outside, all the guests were throwing confetti and congratulating them on having finally made it official.  
  
"Well Wood, I see you finally settled down a little." It was McGonagall, backed up by Hooch.  
  
"Yeah, I uh, guess I have." he laughed nervously, scratching the back of his head.  
  
Em came up behind, totally without his knowledge and gave his arse a whole- handed squeeze..he squeaked and jumped slightly but then turned around and grabbed her:  
  
"Cheeky, better some of that energy for tonight." he cocked an eyebrow and grinned.  
  
"Hey wood!" called Harry, "Congratulations man!"  
  
"Thanks." he shouted back.  
  
"By the way.nice skirt!" called Ron, making a run for it.  
  
"It's a kilt!" he called, a little miffed at having to remind people so often, "Fred, George, do me a favour? Kill your brother."  
  
"With pleasure." laughed George, grabbing Katie by the waist.  
  
"We finally made it, I told we'd make it, come hell or high water.and we did" "Yeah, we did, and I'm so glad did.cause' I love you y'know that?" said Oliver, wrapping his arms lovingly around his wife's waist.  
  
"Yes, yes I do"  
  
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A/n: there ya go, I told it would get happier in this chapter, bwah ha ha ha  
  
Oh yeah, quick note, the next chapter, Is the last chapter of Act II. 


	11. Good Luck Ever After

Innocent Words Act II  
  
Author: Captain Cornflake  
  
Chapter Eleven: Good Luck Ever After  
  
-Disclaimer-  
  
I do NOT own Harry Potter (waaaahhhh, I wish I did!), I own Em though, so ner.  
  
I do not own the song 'Come what may'  
A/N: Awwwww..this is end of Act II, wahhhhhhhh, I'm going to miss writing it, then again, there's always Act's 3,4 and 5 to come.hee hee  
After the celebrations died down outside the church, everyone made for the village hall, which had been hired out for a reception.  
  
Everyone made their way in and sat down at the tables, which were arranged all around a small dance floor.  
  
Fred and George seriously had some fun writing a best mans speech, which Steve had gracefully declined to do, seeing as he had a fear of speaking to big crowds.  
  
Oliver put his face in one of his hands, and smiled to himself as the two of them stood to do their piece, Em cringed slightly and smiled to herself, she unfortunately knew what they were like.  
  
"Ladies, gents, and small children." started Fred, "What to say, I know you guys are expecting a tonne of jokes and crap like that.and."  
  
"You're right.there'll be plenty of that." piped up George.  
  
"We, the two of us first met Oliver when we were what 11, and he was thirteen, and I can tell you, seven years later, he hasn't changed one bloody bit.he's still Quidditch nuts."  
  
"Well.not as much so in the past couple of year, thanks to Em here, she gave him something else to think about other than his sport of choice, but then again, she's just about as bad as he is, so now we're kind of even."  
  
A light wave of laughter ran through the guests.  
  
"I'm only kidding you guys, but seriously, the past almost two years have been pretty crazy for all of us, I mean, only two years ago, Em was a sweet sixteen year old transfer without a care in the world, and Oliver a budding professional player, and now, they're both professional players."  
  
"With the sky being the limit it seems." butted in George.  
  
"So ladies and gents, I want you all to raise your glasses and then get very drunk now."  
  
"Ha, we're joking, raise your glasses please, and make a toast, To Oliver and Em."  
  
Everyone did as the twins asked and raised their glasses before downing the contents soon after.  
  
"Now comes the soppiest bit of the afternoon' festivities, the couple's first dance together as man and wife." said Fred, as George made a fingers down throat gesture at them.  
  
#When the night has come And the land is dark And the moon is the only light we'll see No, I won't be afraid No, I won't be afraid Just as long as you stand Stand by me#  
  
The newlyweds just swayed left to right as the song barely reached their ears, they were too lost in the moment to care about anything else around them.  
  
#So darling, darling, stand by me, oh, stand by me oh, stand, stand by me stand by me#  
  
McGonagall watched on in pure Gryffindor pride as the two danced away on their own, it was the first time in a long time she'd been invited to a former pupils wedding, let alone two of what was her own house.  
  
#If the sky that we look upon should tumble and fall or the mountains should crumble to the sea I won't cry, I won't cry, No, I won't shed a tear Just as long as you stand Stand by me#  
  
Fiona watched her son and her new daughter in law holding close to one another, normally she would have been shocked that someone would marry so young, especially when it involves her only child, but now it had happened, her attitude changed, she was happy for him, or rather she had to be, seeing as Ian wasn't here to be happy for him.  
  
#If the sky that we look upon should tumble and fall or the mountains should crumble to the sea I won't cry, I won't cry, No, I won't shed a tear Just as long as you stand Stand by me#  
  
Oliver sighed happily and wrapped his arms further around Em's back, she also sighed, looked into his eyes and kissed him.  
  
#So darling, darling, stand by me, oh, stand by me oh, stand, stand by me stand by me  
  
Whenever you're in trouble just stand by me Oh stand by me Whoa stand now, oh stand, stand by me#  
  
The song faded out and Em called all the unmarried women in the room onto the dance floor for the mandatory throwing of the bouquet. She got the lilies off Hazel and stood herself about ten feet in front of the group:  
  
"Ok.Ready? Here it comes." she called, before throwing the flowers over her shoulder, she spun around to see who had caught them, and to almost no- one's surprise it was Katie, who was immediately scooped up by a slightly shocked looking George.  
  
Em laughed and slapped George on the back, before Oliver caught her arm and decided it was time to throw her garter to all the single guys in the room. So he got down one knee, took her right foot and rested on his left thigh as he slid the navy band down past her knee.  
  
She giggled slightly as he trailed kissed down from her knee to her mid calf, he stood back up, slid an arm around her waist, turned around and then threw the garter over his shoulder. He waited until he heard a cheer before turning around again; Fred had caught it and was now snogging the face off Angelina.  
  
"Ooh." started Em, "You know what we gotta do now?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Cut the cake."  
  
"Oh yeah."  
  
The cake was cut with Fiona snapping away with her camera, and it was then handed around, particularly among the small children who were present.  
  
Em introduced her eleven-year-old cousin Martin to Oliver and explained that he would be starting at Hogwarts in September. Martin was the son of Em's elder cousin Kevin.  
  
As the evening progressed a tango began, the frantic passionate rhythm filled the air with its sensuality. Only a few lithe couples managed to keep up with the pounding beat. Their evocative moves enticed and encaptured the attention of the whole room.  
  
Several hours of dancing, music and drinking later, only the invited adults were still there, all the younger guests had retired to their accommodation, most had had their fill of dancing and partying for the day and were quite tired.  
  
The music was now being controlled on a magic jukebox where you simply spoke the song title and it began to play in a couple of seconds.  
  
#Never knew I could feel like this Like I've never seen the sky before Want to vanish inside your kiss Everyday I love you more and more#  
  
Oliver smiled, closed his eyes and rested his chin on the top of Em's head as the enticing tune and meaningful lyrics reached his ears.  
  
#Listen to my heart can you hear it sing Telling me to give you everything Seasons may change, winter to spring But I love you until the end of time#  
  
Em stared sideways as the song played on, her eyes becoming glazed over as she rested her head on his chest, listening to the soft sound of his heart beating.  
  
#Come what may Come what may I will love you until my dying day#  
  
Katie sighed as George gently swayed her from side to side as the words of the music struck a chord with her, as she knew they would with her newlywed friends.  
  
#Suddenly the world seems such a perfect place Suddenly it moves with such a perfect grace Suddenly my life doesn't seem such a waste It all revolves around you And there's no mountain too high No river too wide Sing out this song and I'll be there by your side Storm clouds may gather, And stars may collide#  
  
The next lines seemed to flow from their mouths like they had already heard the song many times, instead of being sung however, they were uttered in a barely audible whisper.  
  
"But I love you"  
  
"I love you"  
  
"Until the end of time"  
  
"Until the end of time"  
  
They stared into each other's eyes as the last words of the song rang out, knowing what they had whispered to one another there was true and would never be made untrue, even by the twisted hands of fate.  
  
#Come what may Come what may I will love you...  
  
I will love you until my dying day.........#  
As the song ended, he held her at her elbows, as she did to him:  
  
"I really do love you."  
  
"Until the end of time." she whispered in reply.  
  
Soon after that, the reception finished, and the couple headed back to Oliver's house for some extra partying, just the two of them, if you know what I mean.  
  
To keep up with tradition, he carried her over the threshold, narrowly avoiding hitting her head on the doorframe, she giggled and squeaked loudly as he refused to put her down.  
  
Fiona appeared from the kitchen and stopped them from a moment, to Oliver's slight annoyance. He groaned slightly and put Em down and asked what his mum wanted.  
  
"We..I mean.your dad and me, Hazel and Oscar helped as well, we got you this as our wedding present.here."  
  
She handed him an envelope, which he eyed curiously for a moment, before tentatively tearing at the sealed edge.  
  
He slid out the contents and nearly fainted in shock.  
  
"I can't believe this...you guys...you...."  
  
"What? What is it?" asked Em, eager to know what it was.  
  
"It's.it's a holiday, two weeks in Oahu, the Hawaiian Islands." he replied, his eyes wide in shock."  
  
"Oh." squeaked Em, latching on to Fiona, giving her a tight hug.  
  
"Mum, I don't know what to say."  
  
"Then don't say anything, just enjoy the honeymoon."  
  
He couldn't speak for the lump in his throat, he didn't move again until Fiona gave him a small pat on the arm.  
  
"Go on son, enjoy your wedding night."  
  
Em led him away upstairs with a cheeky grin on her face, and as they reached the top of the stairs, Oliver laid a hand lightly on her behind, she smiled inwardly and replied, pulling him up against the bedroom door with her arms draped around his neck.  
  
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, I'm not wearing any underwear under here."  
  
He merely arched an eyebrow, twisted the door handle and hurried her inside.  
  
Let's just say, that night, they were thankful for the invention of silencing charms.  
  
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
  
A/N: eeh well, there you have it, Act II, finished, complete, finito, final, done, dusted, over..ack its so said.but don't worry because Act III is on the way. real soon. 


End file.
